Two prominent Chinese bloggers in exile say police are investigating their millions of followers on international social media platforms, escalating Beijing’s crackdown on critical speech abroad.
Former state broadcaster CCTV reporter Wang Zhian and artist-turned-dissident Li Ying, both Chinese nationals known for publishing uncensored news about China, said in separate posts on Sunday that police were interrogating those who posted on social media Follow their people and urge their followers to take action. Take precautions such as unfollowing their accounts, changing their usernames, avoiding phones made in China, and preparing for questioning.
Li Ying, also known as Teacher Li, is best known as a news source for the White Paper protests, a rare moment of anti-government protest in mainland China in 2022. Mr. Li’s account on
In a post on Sunday night, Li advised people to unfollow his account. “Currently, the Public Security Bureau is investigating my 1.6 million fans and the people in the comments one by one.”
Lee shared screenshots of private messages he had received from fans over the past few months, saying police had interrogated individuals and some had even lost their jobs.
As of Monday afternoon, Lee’s number of followers on X had dropped to 1.4 million.
International social media platforms such as X and YouTube are blocked in China but can still be accessed through software that bypasses the country’s censorship.
Wang, who has 1 million subscribers on X and 1.2 million followers on YouTube, also told his fans to unsubscribe.
Li, Wang and the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Beijing has been cracking down on dissent on Chinese social media for the past decade, with thousands of censors employed by private companies and the Chinese government.
Chinese users who express critical opinions online have reportedly been called, harassed or interrogated by police, with some summoned for questioning and ordered to delete certain posts or delete their accounts. In some cases, users were detained, with some sentenced to jail terms of up to two weeks and a few to years in prison.
Recently, Beijing has expanded its tracking to include non-Chinese platforms such as Facebook, Telegram and X. Some of the tools were described in recently leaked documents from I-Soon, a private contractor with ties to China’s top police agency and other parts of the government. Used by Chinese police to curb dissent on overseas social media, this includes a tool specifically designed to monitor users on X.
The hackers also created tools for police to crack email inboxes and expose X’s anonymous users, documents show. Leaks show that at times, officials sent I-Soon requests to spy on specific individuals.
Lee said he would not stop posting even if people unfollowed him, but he urged followers to take basic digital safety precautions.
“I don’t want your life to be affected just because you want to know the real news about China,” Li said in another post. “You just want to know what’s going on, but the price is pretty high
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