In a rare protest outside the Olympic stadium in Beijing on June 3rd, a young woman was seen waving an American national flag and scattering anti-Chinese government leaflets.
According to Radio Free Asia, Mayday - a popular Taiwanese rock band - was holding their last concert in Beijing when the protest happened. In a 13-second video clip, the woman could be seen climbing up to a platform above the crowd attending the concert. She was soon taken down by security guards and arrested.
A leaked photo shows that the first half of the leaflet is an excerpt from the United States Declaration of Independence. The second half is a letter written by the woman to fellow Chinese calling for democracy in the country:
“We should be loyal to our values but not values dictated by any political party. We should respect ourselves, treating ourselves and our fellows as humans. Only then the global society will accept us.”
“China must embrace the world and become a country with real freedom and democracy. It must become a country everyone wants to visit but not a place everyone wants to escape.”
“If you agree with me, please think about what you can do for freedom and democracy in China from now! Time for action! Do anything you can! We are running out of time!”
Taking place during a highly sensitive time - a day before the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre - any information about the protest was censored on the Chinese Internet. Words such as “Mayday concert”, “Olympic stadium”, and “Declaration of Independence” were temporarily removed from search results on Weibo, which is a popular Chinese social media platform similar to Twitter.
However, on non-state-controlled media platforms, many people were shocked by the young woman’s act and praised her courage. One commenter wrote: “She’s such a heroine! I hope she’s safe.”
Others said the woman is “a female version of Peng Zaizhou”. Better known as the ‘Bridge Man’, Peng put up large banners calling for the Chinese President Xi Jinping to step down days before the Communist party congress in October 2022. He was immediately arrested and “disappeared” by Chinese authorities. Sitong Bridge - the site of Peng’s protest - was recently removed from online maps. The road sign for the bridge has also been removed.
Unlike Peng, whose real name was quickly discovered by curious Internet users, the woman’s identity remains a mystery.
As Xi Jinping commences his third term, the country becomes increasingly totalitarian, and many dissidents have been arrested. This April, two prominent Chinese civil rights activists, Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong, were handed a 12-year and a 14-year jail term respectively. Many fear the young woman will be given a heavy sentence secretly after her disappearance.
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