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  • Chinese Netizens Are Tortured And Punished

  • For Leaking Information On Xi Jinping's Daughter

  • Daddy Xi Is Not Happy

  • Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell.

  • In China, netizens can be  arrested for simply browsing  

  • China's Dirty Webbasicallythe Dark Web for doxing sites.

  • Like many young internet users, netizens in China  have formed subcultures on certain websites.  

  • Some of these websites are hosted  on foreign servers outside of China,  

  • so authorities can't shut them down as easily.

  • Some of these websites function  as wiki database sitesthat is,  

  • users can contribute information on the site.

  • The Chinese Communist Party calls these  wikis theEsu Circle”. Esu means Vulgar

  • One of the Esu Circle websites is Zhina Wiki. And  just look at this homepage. Now that's vulgar.

  • It started as a place where young netizens could  share memes and throw shade at public figures like  

  • celebrities and athletes. But in 2019, users  on Zhina Wiki shared personal information  

  • about Xi Jinping's relatives: his brother-in-law  Deng Jiagui, and his daughter Xi Mingze.

  • That leaked information included Date  of Birth, Household Registration number,  

  • and for Xi Mingze, her new name.  

  • She allegedly had her name changed after getting  her Bachelor's Degree from Harvard University.

  • The only official photo of Xi Mingze is  this Xinhua propaganda photo from the 90s.  

  • And it's not really a photo of her. It's  a photo of how great her dad is. Daddy Xi!

  • But that little girl  

  • is now 28. And very few people actually  know what she looks like as an adult.

  • Occasionally, alleged photos  of her have been leaked.

  • This Daily Mail article from  8 years ago shows this photo,  

  • but without citing a sourceIt's most likely not her

  • There's also this photo, from  thefamouspeople.comalso not a reliable source

  • There's also this photo from Getty  Images, labeled as Xi Mingze, but  

  • not confirmed that it's the same Xi  Mingze who's the daughter of Xi Jinping.

  • And obviously none of these  photos are the same person

  • And this latest leak from the Zhina Wiki  website is yet another unconfirmed photo.

  • Whether accurate or not, Daddy Xi is not pleased

  • And in the typical communist style, the  response to the leaked photo is pretty extra.  

  • The Ministry of Public Security established  a special task force. In the end they jailed  

  • 24 netizens for the information leak.

  • Which is crazy. When can you get  24 people to cooperate on anything?

  • The most severe sentence was given  to 21-year-old computer prodigy  

  • Niu Tengyu, who had made around 200 entries  online. He was deemed the primary offender.

  • Niu Tengyu was sentenced to 8 years in prison for  “picking quarrels and provoking disturbances,”  

  • 5 years in prison forinfringing on citizenspersonal information,” and 2 years forillegal  

  • business operation.” His combined sentence is  15 years in prison, and the court decided to  

  • implement a 14-year sentence with a 130,000  RMB finewhich is about 20,000 US dollars.

  • 14 years in prison seems excessive for  leaking a photo and some informationand  

  • it wasn't even embarrassing information.

  • Just imagine someone leaking information  about the US president's embarrassing child.

  • Twitter might freeze your account.

  • But you won't go to prison.

  • Even Donald Trump eventually stopped  hiding his embarrassing daughter.

  • And Xi Mingze is by all accounts well behaved  and low key. So what's such a big deal that  

  • the people who allegedly leaked her  information are going to prison

  • Well, it's hard to say. But the prison  sentence isn't even the worst part.  

  • I'll explain after the break.

  • Welcome back.

  • Niu Tengyu is the Chinese netizen who  was sentenced to 14 years in prison  

  • for allegedly leaking this photo and information  about Xi Jinping's daughter, Xi Mingze.

  • VisitingEsu Circlewebsites has not been  punished by the judicial system before.  

  • But this case is different because  it involves Xi Jinping's family.  

  • And that's also why Chinese lawyers  are reluctant to represent Niu Tengyu.

  • This handwritten letter from Niu Tengyu was  released by an anonymous friend or colleague. It's  

  • about how the authorities tortured him to confess.  

  • It says: “Around January 2020, I was forced to  write 'confessions' on a few hundred pages of  

  • A4 paper. I wrote tens of thousands of words. All  of the content I wrote was required by the police,  

  • and I was forced to make up and fabricate things  that are non-existent, deliberate fabrications  

  • according to their demands. I had to write enough  pages within a given timeframe following the  

  • titles and outlines they demanded. When failing  to do so, I was allowed to eat nothing but rice,  

  • I was deprived of sleep, and I was hung up and  beaten. Between December 10, 2019, and January 20,  

  • 2020, I slept less than 30 hours in  total, and I was crippled by beating.  

  • I'm hereby stating that all these  documents were fabrications under duress,  

  • and they do not represent my own  opinion, and much of them are not true.”

  • According to Niu's mother, the police tortured him  

  • to get him to confess to being  the ringleader behind the leak.

  • She also said that one of Niu's  arms has been permanently injured  

  • and he was beaten until he was  unconscious several times.  

  • I know what you're thinking: That's  an excessive amount of torture.  

  • But remember, he's a dangerous terrorist. He  posted a photo on the internet. Allegedly.

  • And I say allegedly because it might  not have been Niu Tengyu at all.

  • The founder of one of the Esu Circle websites  has testified that Niu Tengyu wasn't actually  

  • involved in the information  leak, but is just a scapegoat.

  • After all, there's no way to verify  that Niu Tengyu was the one who found  

  • Xi Mingze's information in the first placeAccording to Xiao Yanrui, who started several  

  • of the Esu Circle websites, the data may have  been shared online by...corrupt police officers.

  • Xiao says the administrators of the Zhina  Wiki website, where the information was  

  • actually leaked, are based overseas. So the  authorities chose to blame Niu Tengyu instead.  

  • Even though Niu was not posting on Zhina WikiHe was posting on a different website, Esu Wiki

  • And according to Xiao, the information about  

  • Xi Jinping's relatives was  not even posted on Esu Wiki.

  • Xiao also said that Niu had traveled with him  to Hong Kong to see the protests back in 2019. 

  • So...this could have been about punishing  him for visiting the Hong Kong protests,  

  • while at the same time covering  up police behavior? Hmmm.

  • And now it's time for me to answer a question from  a viewer who supports China Uncensored on Patreon.

  • Bruce Johnson asks: Chris, what's your general impression of the  

  • post Trump/mid pandemic world as it relates  to China's future? It seems between Trump  

  • and the CCP's handling of the Coronavirus, the  cat is out of the bagHow much will all this  

  • impact China's trajectory of becomingtrue super power and rival of the US

  • Well, Bruce: The good news is that through the  pandemic, a lot of people are waking up to the  

  • problems with the Chinese Communist Partyfrom  their initial cover up that caused the spread,  

  • to the hostile mask diplomacy, to  the ineffective Chinese vaccines.  

  • Even some governments are getting tougher  on the CCP, like the UK and Australia.

  • In terms of post-Trump, it's hard to say. We've  only had a few weeks of post-Trump, and it's not  

  • yet clear what the Biden administration is going  to do on China. They've said some tough things,  

  • they've said some cooperative things. But  ultimately it'll be actions that count.

  • But the best way to prevent the  CCP from being a true super power  

  • is simple: Stop giving them money. That's itStop investing in their bonds. Stop buying their  

  • products. Stop watching their stupid panda videosAnd if we all do that, the CCP will not survive.

  • Thanks for your question, Bruce.

  • Be like Bruce and join us on Patreon. Go to  Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored to learn more.

  • Once again, I'm Chris ChappellThanks for watching China Uncensored.

Chinese Netizens Are Tortured And Punished

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