One afternoon in October 2024, Li Ying was mendacity in mattress, scrolling by means of X, when he received a notification on his telephone from the peephole safety digicam on his condo door in Turin, Italy.
Two males had been lingering within the hallway.
He received up quietly, went to the door and watched them by means of the digicam feed on his telephone.
For 2 years, ever since he turned his X account into one of the vital influential Chinese language-language sources for uncensored information and dissent, Mr. Li had obtained threats of bodily hurt. Ought to these threats ever come to cross, he imagined summoning the braveness to livestream his seize, presumably even his personal loss of life.
When one of many males reached into his pocket, Mr. Li froze. He forgot to livestream.
The person pulled out a can of spray paint and scrawled the phrase “stupro,” Italian for rape. Then each males left.
Mr. Li’s worst fears had not come to cross. He referred to as the police. 4 officers got here, they usually took his assertion and his safety digicam footage. A good friend drove from Milan to gather him and his two cats. By morning the condo was empty.
After that second, Mr. Li, who is called “Instructor Li” to his followers on social media, determined that his life shouldn’t be dictated by concern. Reasonably than again down, he expanded his actions — touring, attending human rights conferences and assembly diplomats, journalists, activists and politicians throughout Europe, Asia and North America.
“When you’ll be able to face the abyss immediately,” Mr. Li stated, “the abyss regularly begins to concern you as a substitute.”
The Italian police haven’t launched any details about the investigation, however Mr. Li was sure that the Chinese language authorities had employed the vandals. Underneath Xi Jinping, censorship and surveillance have made sustained dissent inside China extraordinarily tough. Beijing has proved equally determined to pursue those that communicate out from overseas.
Mr. Li, 34, is among the many greatest targets of Beijing. Fixed doxxing stored him on the transfer. Smears and loss of life threats crammed his X feed. Then the intimidation turned bodily: Strangers appeared at his door, photographed his constructing and scrawled threats in his hallway.
A rising variety of Chinese language who discovered dwelling in an authoritarian state insupportable have moved overseas. Most are too scared of a vengeful authorities to talk up. However individuals like Mr. Li present a substitute for the official authorities narratives by means of podcasts, YouTube channels, bookstores and X accounts run from Tokyo, Toronto and New York.
Few have reached an viewers as giant as Mr. Li’s.
In keeping with information analytics agency Similarweb, his X account, which has 2.2 million followers, ranked fifth globally on the positioning by visitors in December — extraordinary for an account written in Chinese language. From 2023 to 2025, the account generated greater than six billion views every year.
He posts accounts of unemployed university graduatessupply drivers who as soon as held more prestigious jobsthe individuals who spent cash on apartments that had been by no means constructed or who had been by no means paid for his or her work. A number of the data is distributed by individuals inside China, reminiscent of videos of the police cracking down on Wuhan residents protesting plans for a battery manufacturing unit. Some posts come from Chinese language social media websites, reminiscent of Weibo and Douyin, the sister quick video app of TikTok.
“His is not only a single voice,” stated Laura Harth, a director primarily based in Italy for Safeguard Defenders, a human rights group. “He’s just like the loudspeaker by means of which all the opposite voices” — Chinese language voices — “come out into the world.”
A Cute and Menacing Cat
Mr. Li grew up in japanese China’s Anhui Province and has been drawing for so long as he can bear in mind. He moved to Italy to check portray. In November 2022, when demonstrations erupted in China protesting the nation’s draconian “zero Covid” insurance policies, he was dwelling in Milan. He had a modest following on Twitter, as X was recognized on the time; his avatar is a hand-drawn cat that’s concurrently cute and menacing.
The protests had been the biggest wave of public dissent since Tiananmen Sq. in 1989. Mr. Li opened his account to anybody inside China with one thing to point out the world. Individuals started sending him pictures, movies and witness accounts — for instance, of cops arresting protesters or individuals chanting for Mr. Xi to step down — that might have been censored on the Chinese language web. His following exploded.
Then got here the retaliation.
Every time he posted on-line, the police would seem at his dad and mom’ home in Anhui. The Chinese language Embassy in Italy wrote to a language faculty in Milan the place Mr. Li labored, accusing him of fraud. He misplaced his job.
His dad and mom begged him to cease posting. His financial institution accounts in China had been frozen. So had been his fee apps and gaming accounts.
Satisfied he was being tracked, he moved 4 occasions in a 12 months. At his most remoted, he didn’t depart his constructing for 2 weeks, surviving totally on McDonald’s takeout delivered to his home.
In 2024, the police in China started summoning Mr. Li’s followers and pressuring them to unfollow his account. Then got here the graffiti in Turin.
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China runs probably the most in depth model of transnational repression on the earth, touching hundreds of thousands of individuals in a minimum of 36 nations, in keeping with a 2021 Freedom House report. Beijing makes use of espionage, cyberattacks, threats and bodily assaults to silence and punish its critics.
Over the previous few years, the authorities in Europe and the United States have investigated and prosecuted instances linked to Beijing’s efforts to watch and intimidate dissidents overseas.
In February, an OpenAI report documented how Chinese language legislation enforcement had used the corporate’s ChatGPT to conduct on-line affect operations in opposition to dissidents and international leaders, utilizing Mr. Li as one of many examples. Mr. Li’s workforce and Safeguard Defenders encourage abroad Chinese language to doc their experiences of Beijing’s transnational repression and submit proof to the authorities in democratic nations.
Beijing denies accusations of transnational repression and accuses international governments of interfering in China’s inner affairs.
I’ve talked to Mr. Li many occasions over time. I as soon as joked to him that there are two publications I learn daily to maintain up with China information: the official Individuals’s Each day and his X feed.
Early on, he resisted the “insurgent” label and advised me that he regretted what he had gotten himself into. He was incredulous that some Chinese language pinned their hope of democracy on an influencer like him. Having paid the worth of dissent, he understood why so few individuals dared to talk out.
However as time handed, Mr. Li appeared more and more comfy inhabiting his function as an activist. He nonetheless doesn’t need his picture taken, and he surveys any room he enters. However the man who as soon as hid inside his condo now strikes confidently by means of airports and attends conferences and visits embassies. He briefs diplomats on what’s occurring in China and Beijing’s strategies of transnational repression.
He oversees workers and volunteers who assist mixture information and handle his X account in addition to placing out a brand new weekly newsletter in English. In February 2025, Mr. Li’s workforce organized a crowdsourced investigation into lengthy faculty hours inside China, drawing 1000’s of submissions from college students and fogeys. Some colleges adjusted their schedules after the findings circulated broadly on-line. (His work is supported by personal donors.)
In December, I requested whether or not he thought-about himself a revolutionary. He hesitated.
The phrase, he stated, carries associations with violence and bloodshed — issues he abhors.
However Mr. Li stated he now noticed his work as a part of a nonviolent wrestle in opposition to Communist Celebration rule.
“For a very long time, I used to be the one being chased by them,” he advised me, referring to the Chinese language authorities. “However now, I’ve turned the tables — I’m the one pursuing them world wide and pushing again in opposition to them.”
In April, we met in Tokyo. Mr. Li likes town due to its Chinese language diaspora, which lately has attracted a rising variety of journalists, activists and intellectuals.
He additionally likes the proximity to China — as shut, maybe, as an exiled dissident can get.
In Could, throughout President Trump’s state go to to China, Mr. Li’s posts made a quick splash on Chinese language social media. Mr. Li’s account had posted a photograph displaying Mr. Musk strolling along with his younger son, who was sporting a Chinese language-style vest. Mr. Musk, a member of the U.S. delegation, replied to the publish in Chinese language: “My son is studying Mandarin.”
The change rapidly turned one of the vital mentioned matters on Chinese language social media. A state media outlet created a hashtag #ElonMusksaidhissonislearningChinese on the Weibo platform. Some feedback slyly requested, “So, to whom he was responding?” After a number of hours, the hashtag was deleted.
Quickly after, Mr. Li posted a picture generated by synthetic intelligence displaying Mr. Musk and Mr. Xi seated collectively at a state dinner. Mr. Musk was holding up a telephone towards the Chinese language chief.
On the display was Mr. Li’s mischievous cat avatar.
