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Chinese government hides pictures of Xi, fearing defacement

CPC hides political advertisements and images of Xi in fear, after wave of public defacements

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Inked Xi (left), Dong Yaoqiong (right). (Images from Twitter)

Inked Xi (left), Dong Yaoqiong (right). (Images from Twitter)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – After a string of images of Xi splashed with ink, China's government issues instructions to hide representations of President Xi, reported Radio Free Asia.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) fears more defacing of political advertisements, as the public demonstrates their discontent.

Shanghai resident Dong Yaoqiong (董瑶琼) posted a live video of herself splashing an image of Xi with black ink on July 4, in protest of Xi's "authoritarian tyranny" and the CPC's "mind control persecution." Dong was soon arrested and her social media presence taken down, but the incident led to similar ink protests throughout China.

RFA has uncovered four independent directives for images of Xi and the CPC to be hidden from the public. A source told RFA that party officials were taking down party images in fear of the public response, and in fear of the disciplinary reaction from senior officials if similar defacing were to happen in their jurisdiction.

Officials in Tianjin, northeast China were fastest to respond to the ink protest, removing all images of Xi by 5:00 a.m. on July 5, less than 24 hours after the initial incident.

On July 6, the Dongguan Municipal Government in southern China issued a notice calling for all outdoor political advertisements to not use images of the CPC or party leaders.

On July 12, the Beijing Baoying Property Management Limited (北京寶盈物業管理有限公司) issued a "special notice" saying that police had given the company instructions to remove all political advertisements and images of Xi within 48 hours.

In Changsha, Hunan, the CPC replaced political advertisements with Xi and other senior officials with posters with the words "social core values." The public splashed these posters with ink, nonetheless, reported RFA.

"This incident of ink splashing is because ordinary people have been beaten and public rights have been abused, but the people have nowhere to vent, no words" online activist Hsu Chung-yang (徐崇阳) told RFA.