RED LANTERN Three and a half years in prison for reporting on the ‘blank sheets’ protests in China

On January 6, a Shanghai court imposed the sentence, even though Chen Pinlin, born in 1991, had signed a plea agreement for two years in prison. The video “Urumqi Middle Road”, which he uploaded to YouTube in 2023, collects the testimonies of Chinese citizens who in some way had suffered from the restrictive measures imposed during the pandemic.

Beijing () – The Chinese documentary filmmaker who made a feature film about the last major protest movement against the government was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for “picking fights and creating problems”, accusations often used by local authorities to repress freedom of the press and political activism. Chen Pinlin, known by the nickname “Plato” (or Plato in English), was found guilty on January 6 by a Shanghai court. He had been arrested in November 2023 after the publication of the documentary “Urumqi Middle Road”, which chronicles the so-called “blank sheets protests”.

These are the demonstrations that arose spontaneously at the end of November 2022 to commemorate the victims of a fire that occurred in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang autonomous region, when ten people were trapped in a building due to strict measures. anti covid imposed during the pandemic. In a short time, discontent had spread to some of the main Chinese cities, such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and Xi’an, and had become a general protest movement against the Chinese regime and the largest wave of demonstrations since Tiananmen in 1989. The citizens, to avoid the censorship of the Communist Party (a man named Peng Lifa, who had hung a series of banners critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping, had disappeared shortly before), had simply begun to wave sheets of paper. blank paper.

The documentary “Urumqi Middle Road” lasts 77 minutes and was originally published on YouTube and on -covid”. Chen Pinlin, born in 1991, until then was dedicated to making videos for advertising purposes. “This is the first time I have participated in a political event in China, and it is also the first time I have expressed my political demands in China,” Chen wrote on social media at the time. “The more the government disorients, forgets and censors, the more we must speak and remember, even to others,” he added.

After the sentencing, defense lawyer Fangxian Guizai explained in X that before the trial the director had accepted a plea deal with the prosecutor, who in turn had recommended a two-year sentence. By signing a plea agreement before the criminal trial, Chen Pinlin would have implicitly admitted his guilt and waived his right to defend himself against the main charges, but the court did not take into consideration the prosecutor’s recommendations or the plea agreement, the lawyer continued. . Several Chinese political dissidents living outside the country also noted that three and a half years in prison is the harshest sentence so far handed down in connection with the Blank Sheet protests.

Fang also explained that “Urumqi Middle Road” was put together from videos that were already on the Internet at the time, so the accusations of “slander” and “fabricating false information” leveled against Chen, who did not do so, would not be legitimate. more than repeating the slogans expressed by protesters against the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping. “Actually, everyone understands why Chen was held criminally responsible in this case, because in the documentary someone shouts ‘Xi Jinping to resign,’” the lawyer told Voice of America.

In English, Chen gave the documentary the title “Not a foreign power” because at the time of the blank sheets protests the government had suggested the intervention of outside elements. While “Urumqi Middle Road” is the name of a street in Shanghai where protesters gathered (the sign was also removed shortly afterwards).

Arbitrary detention is a fate shared by Chinese dissidents and journalists. In 2024, China was once again confirmed as the most repressive country in terms of freedom of the press and expression of dissent. According to data collected by Reporters Without Borders124 journalists were arrested and are currently imprisoned in China, including 11 in Hong Kong. Among them, journalist Zhang Zhan, who served a four-year sentence for her coverage of the pandemic, was arrested again after her release in August last year with the same accusations leveled against Chen Pinlin: having caused trouble and disorder.

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