Li Ying, the artist-turned-citizen journalist behind the X account “Mr Li is not your teacher,” shot to prominence during the “white paper” protests of November 2022, which sparked the end of three years of grueling lockdowns, mass quarantines and compulsory testing under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy.
While X is banned in China and news of the protests was heavily suppressed by the authorities, young people who supported the movement still found ways to send Li footage, photos and news of events in their area, bypassing the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s strict censorship of social media.
Since then, Li’s audience has grown to 1.8 million followers and billions of page views in 2024. His readers are mostly Chinese able to get around the Great Firewall of blocks and filters, Chinese living overseas and anyone interested who is interested in China.
But the Chinese authorities have stepped up pressure on Li, his followers and family, denouncing him on social media and hauling in anyone who knows him for questioning.
Even living in Italy, there is still a risk he could run afoul of China’s “long-arm” law enforcement operations, and get forced back home like other dissidents and activists.
Li spoke to Radio Free Asia in a recent interview about how his account took off, and the personal consequences of his sudden fame, as well as his goals for 2025.
RFA: How did “Mr. Li is not your teacher” take off?
Li Ying: When the ‘white paper’ movement started, a lot of people started sending reports to me about what was going on. They might be in Shanghai, or Wuhan or Guangzhou, or wherever these events were happening, and they would send me photos or video clips, and tell me what was going on there.
I didn’t really understand why they were telling me this stuff. There was a lot of information coming in. A lot of people wanted this information, but it would be very hard to come by inside China.
So they would pass it on that there was a Twitter (X) account where you could read that information, so there were a lot of people visiting [the account].
And people would realize that they too could tell me what was going on if there was a protest in their city or on the street below.
There are various ways to lock down breaking news about events. They can use different kinds of technology to stop the news getting out, but as long as there is someone there to record it happening, people will find a way to get it out there.
They can’t break down the bonds of trust between people.
RFA: How can you trust what your contacts send you?
Li Ying: I haven’t really had anyone mess me around [with disinformation]. Sometimes they even take the initiative to confirm the report for me. If they see some content, they will often ask their friends if it’s true, because they’re local to the area, and they might have friends who were there. Only then will they send it to me.
Back then I was posting about 300 times in the course of a day. I trusted them, and they trusted me.
I was constantly getting excited and tearful over the content they were sending me. My heart rate got so high I felt like I would die.
RFA: How did things go for you in 2024?
Li Ying: 2024 has been kind of unfathomable for me. As I think a lot of people know, starting in early 2024, the authorities in China started seeking out people who were following me on X, hauling them in to “drink tea.”
That was kind of unbelievable. It was a bit like the Falun Gong, the way they haul you in to drink tea if you come in contact with anything relating to the Falun Gong. I really think it got that bad.
I don’t think online censorship in China has ever gotten to the point before where they have gone after people who follow a specific individual. It’s the first I’ve heard of it.
They started going after me in any way they could at the start of this year, including targeting my parents, my friends, anyone who knew me.
They summoned the whole lot of them and questioned them about me.
Online, a lot of people were getting direct messages [on social media] criticizing me. I myself was being targeted with about 100 messages an hour every day and ... denounced as a traitor to the Chinese people.
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All of these attacks were going on while my account was growing the whole time, reaching 1.8 million followers. It was the fourth most-visited account on X with around 6.2 billion visits recorded that year.
So while I have been under all manner of personal attacks in 2024, it hasn’t stopped the account from going from strength to strength.
RFA: People have pointed out that you have quite a bit of power and influence as a citizen journalist now. How do you feel about that?
Li Ying: I have been aware that I have a certain amount of power. I have been able to post about stuff that nobody else can.
I know that the Cyberspace Administration sends all of my tweets to their censors every day, warning them not to allow any of this information to appear online in China.
I know they think I’m very important — I’m a top priority for them.
But I’m still very focused on working with my band of partners to give people a voice, and to act as an amplifier, to pass on the kind of news that people want to see. That’s something I’ve always tried to do with that account.
Certain things have also become clear to me, like the fact that I will probably never see my parents again.
But sometimes if you want to work for a broader family [your people], you have to give up your close family. It’s the price I have to pay for what I do.
I know there’s a prison bunk somewhere in China with my name on it. It’s just a question of when I have to sleep in it. It’s entirely conceivable that one day they could track me down and knock on my door and drag me away.
But I don’t live in terror of that happening. There are still a lot of very important things that I want to achieve.
RFA: What sort of things?
Li Ying: I want to grow the account even more. I want to live my best life. I want more and more Chinese people to wake up to the fact that China can change.
If an ordinary guy like me can get the Chinese Communist Party this worried, then there are plenty of people with more learning and talent than me who could do even better.
But whatever happens, I’ll still be on the front line, reporting on developments for people in China and overseas Chinese, and offering the rest of the world a window on China.
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.