Chinese Student Disappears After Demanding Xi Jinping Resign

A Chinese student who called for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping to step down in a message posted to social media on Monday has gone missing. On Tuesday, reports suggested he was in police custody for his remarks.

Zhang Wenbin, a university student in eastern Shandong province, wrote on social media on March 30 that the police had already summoned him for the post, and that he would be detained for five days. Since then, he has not made any further posts. On March 31, he was no longer accessible via social media.

Sources said Zhang had been taken in for questioning by local police, on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” a charge reportedly used to target peaceful critics of the regime.

On Monday, Zhang posted a video of his message, which has been viewed 175,200 times so far.

In the video, Zhang says he was once a young supporter of the ruling CCP, referring to himself as a former “little pink,” a term to describe youths indoctrinated by the regime. However, after bypassing the government’s internet censorship, he discovered the truth about the CCP and its “sinister” history. In his statement, Zhang referred to his enlightenment as scaling the “Great Firewall” of CCP internet censorship:

Since I scaled the Great Firewall, I gradually came to the realization that the Chinese Communist Party has extended its dragon claws into every corner of the world, including the collective farming [1950s], the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976], the Great Famine [1958-1961], the One-Child Policy, the Tiananmen massacre [1989], as well as the persecution of the Falun Gong [spiritual movement], and the peoples of Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

“And yet everyone continues to turn a blind eye, singing the party’s praises. I just can’t bear it,” said Zhang. He added that the pro-democracy Hong Kong protests and the Taiwan presidential elections, which defeated a Beijing-backed candidate, had helped change his mind.

“When I look at the courage with which Hong Kong and Taiwan stand up to the Communist Party, I want my own voice to be heard. I call on you all to look upon the true colors of the [Chinese] Communist Party, and stand together to bring down this wall,” Zhang said. “Xi Jinping, you can leave now. So can the [Chinese] Communist Party.”

Zhang’s disappearance comes after news Monday that Dr. Ai Fen, director of emergency management at Wuhan Central Hospital, in Wuhan, China – where the Chinese coronavirus originated late last year – had reportedly gone missing, as well. Dr. Ai was one of the first doctors to reveal the severity of the Chinese coronavirus outbreak, defying the CCP’s attempts to downplay the epidemic.

The Chinese coronavirus, originating in Wuhan, China late last year, was designated a pandemic on March 11 by the World Health Organization (WHO). At press time Wednesday, the Chinese coronavirus was responsible for 911,308 infections 45,497 deaths worldwide.