Internet Activists Targeted in China

Wang Lihong was an ordinary Chinese citizen. She ran her own business, renovating and renting out basement dwellings. But when she retired in 2008, she became a crusader for human rights. Wang took it upon herself to investigate cases of injustice that were spread online. It was a journey that put her on the wrong end of the Chinese regime’s iron fist.

The 56-year-old woman now finds herself in a detention center in central Beijing. She has been charged with, “creating a disturbance.” If found guilty, Wang will face up to five years in jail.

The charge is in connection to Wang’s involvement in a demonstration outside a court in Fuzhou city last April. She was a part of a group of about 30 Internet users protesting the arrest of three bloggers under charges of slander. They were helping an illiterate woman pressure authorities to reinvestigate her daughter’s death.

Wang is part of a new generation of dissidents, who mobilize others to action using the Internet. This new kind of activism has put the Chinese regime on alert. The recent uprisings in parts of the Middle East were sparked by this same kind of on-line activism. After several of the oldest regimes in the region collapsed, the CCP launched a massive crackdown on activists that began in March.

Despite attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to monitor and control the Internet, it has become one of the last bastions for freedom of expression in China. Bloggers spread news faster than censors are able to restrict.

Wang told the Associated Press in an interview last October, “I think the most important thing is that every person learns how to be their own citizen, and not become someone else's subordinate.”