(Minghui.org) Fanqiang (climbing over the firewall) has been a popular phrase among Chinese people in recent years, especially the youth. The term means bypassing the Great Firewall of China to access overseas information.
Google, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter... have all been banned in China. “Fanqiang is fairly easy,” wrote a young man in an online chat to his friends, “I have found lots of ‘little pinkies’ (people who spread pro-Chinese Communist Party remarks) on the Internet, and some do not even know about the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. I really hope they can learn this technique and take a look at the outside world.”
Fresh Air
Yin Shuai from Jinnan City, Shandong Province, was shocked by his discovery on June 4, 2019. In the past, he did fanqiang mainly for learning English and reading news. But he has now found something new. The Internet was slow, and someone said it was due to the sensitive time of “June 4” – the Tiananmen Square Massacre that happened on June 4, 1989. “By checking online information overseas, I learned how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had suppressed people in the past. I also came to know how the CCP set up the self-immolation incident at Tiananmen Square on January 23, 2001, to frame Falun Gong,” he wrote, “All these things made me angry and upset. I now want to quit all the organizations related to the CCP.”
Gao Kai also announced on the Epoch Times website that he wanted to quit the CCP organizations. “After climbing over the firewall, I found fresh air here,” he wrote. Looking back, he realized that the situation in China was terrible. “I know the CCP is responsible for all these things, and I want to separate myself from the regime,” he added.
Tang Futai from Hunan Province also had a similar feeling. “Through fanqiang, I read a piece of news that a stone had been unearthed by archaeologists in Pingtang County, Guizhou Province, with words reading ‘The Chinese Communist Party is doomed’. Looking at what we see in China, we all know the CCP is indeed a vicious cult,” he wrote on March 23, 2021, “That is why I want to sever ties with the regime and become a genuine Chinese person free of CCP influence.”
An Internet Censor
Zhang Wei from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, is a government employee and a CCP member. His job is to handle all kinds of posts on the Internet. After identifying “inappropriate” opinions, he identifies the individual and notifies local police to contact the person for discipline. In the past, he was proud of his job, thinking that it would help social stability. But his attitude completely changed after he visited a foreign country in early 2019 and watched a Shen Yun performance there. “If Falun Gong, a meditation system rooted in traditional Chinese culture, is considered a ‘cult’ by the CCP, then what does the CCP itself stand for?” he wrote.
After returning to China, he was able to fanqiang and read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. Shocked by the historical facts covering how the CCP had mistreated, killed, and cheated the Chinese people, Zhang realized how precious traditional Chinese culture is. “Right now, due to my work, I am doing my best to help netizens who seek freedom. I sincerely wish we could end the CCP earlier, so that people in China can freely practice Falun Gong in China again,” he continued.
From Tiananmen Massacre to Situation in Hong Kong
Jiang Zhengwei from Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, said he joined the CCP during his junior year in college. At the time, he thought that being a Party member was an honor because officials always recommended top students to join the CCP. During the pandemic, however, he could not go to school and thus had more time learning how to fanqiang for fun. “I did not expect that the information I saw recently had totally changed my mindset,” he left as a message in May 2020 at the quitting the CCP web page on the Epoch Times website.
During those several months, he had browsed through major overseas Chinese media sites. He also found that China’s and the world’s history was different from what he had learned from textbooks. He learned that the CCP started as a branch of the Soviet’s Communist International in the Far East, and it forcefully overthrew the Republic of China in 1949. “Hundreds of millions of Chinese people lost their cultural roots and became followers of communism, an evil specter from Europe (In Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx wrote, ‘A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.’),” wrote Jiang.
“In addition, the CCP killed at least 30 million people during the Great Chinese Famine between 1959 and 1961. And anyone with independent thoughts was suppressed,” he continued, “Such a mafia regime made me sick. That is why I want to completely separate myself from the CCP.”
Mary Lu wrote in April 2019 that she had just downloaded and installed VPN software several days before, and planned to watch news about Hong Kong on YouTube. By accident, she also found some videos about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Out of curiosity, she clicked the videos and watched them. From there, she also watched many documentaries on the CCP as well the book Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. “This has completely changed the viewpoints I learned in school. Today I have made up my mind to say ‘goodbye’ to the CCP’s junior organization – the Youth League,” she wrote.
Yang Bin announced he was quitting the Youth League and Young Pioneers, two junior organizations of the CCP, on June 1, 2018. Initially he learned fanqiang to access original versions of online games. From there, he also learned how to watch YouTube and Wikipedia.
He once saw a YouTube recommendation for a video on the Extradition Bill in Hong Kong. He had seen reports about it in CCP-controlled media and concluded it was a riot. “But this video showed it was Hong Kong residents fighting for freedom and democracy,” he wrote, “As a result, I felt ashamed of myself because I had wronged Hong Kong residents, Taiwan residents, and Falun Gong practitioners in the past.”
“Not only that, after being brainwashed by the CCP, I even stood on its side criticizing Hong Kong residents. I did not know that they were fighting for the freedom that they are about to lose, while I did not have freedom in the first place,” he continued. Yang said that he felt deceived and betrayed. He has now learned that communism comes from Satanism and it was disguised by Karl Marx and his followers. “I have to do something about it,” he wrote, “I will now quit the CCP’s Youth League and Young Pioneers. I also apologize to everyone whom I have harmed. Furthermore, I will repent my wrongdoings in the past and guide myself with Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, the principles of Falun Gong.”
Change of a Teacher
One middle school teacher said that he had been brainwashed by the CCP in the past. As a result, he had even reported someone making “inappropriate” remarks to authorities, landing that person in custody. Some students later showed him how to fanqiang. After reading how the CCP killed innocent people in the past, he was interested in learning more. So he read through the book Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. “It helped me understand that the CCP not only destroyed traditional Chinese culture but also ruined moral values and mankind’s dignity. Without faith, people are also fighting with each other for their own interests,” he wrote. “Given all these bad deeds the regime committed, I now declare I will join the momentum and quit the CCP.”
Even “little pinkies” have begun to change. Li Zhiyuan is a high school student. Due to influence by the CCP, she even stopped schooling for a while to fanqiang and post pro-CCP remarks. She even published her picture in a soldier's uniform to defend the CCP. But after more interactions with other netizens and reading Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, she found that Party culture promotes brutality, hatred, and lies. “It ruined traditional Chinese culture, destroyed moral values, damaged our environment, and made me lose my rationality,” she wrote. “Because the CCP has misled so many people and brought countless tragedies, I now want to say ‘goodbye’ to the CCP.”
No More Hope for the CCP
Mu Xin in February 2020 said she heard about fanqiang in 2011 when she was in college. In the following years, although she read overseas information from time to time, she still had hope for the CCP, and expected that China would have democratic constitutionalism some day. She even applied to become a CCP member. But that did not happen because of her graduation and job change.
After witnessing a variety of actions from the CCP, including those that covered up the pandemic, Mu said that she now had a better understanding of the CCP’s nature – a vicious, anti-humanity organization. Throughout history, the CCP had tried all means to consolidate its rule. Anyone could be a victim or cannon fodder someday. “For my conscience and my future, I want to completely renounce all membership in the CCP organizations. I also hope that after the CCP is gone, people will be able to freely practice their belief,” she wrote.
High School Student: Paying Attention to Moral Values
Lao Fanzhang, a high school student from Shanghai, said he had heard about independent media such as the Epoch Times several years before. But he was not familiar with fanqiang. In December 2018 he learned the techniques and began to browse overseas information. He also likes reports from the Epoch Times because they are very factual.
“After reading the book Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, I also compared it with my personal experience and many historical facts. I found the book was surprisingly accurate,” Lao wrote. He has since started to learn traditional Chinese and tried to purge the CCP’s ideology and culture from his mind.
The CCP’s brainwashing goes very deep in school. Lao found that the first criterion when evaluating a student’s “moral” value was whether one loves the CCP and communism. “Communism should be abandoned by everyone, and it is absurd to use it as a standard to judge a student’s morality,” he wrote. In fact, the CCP’s brutality is beyond description. “For safety and for my future, I would like to declare quitting the CCP’s junior organization the Young Pioneers,” he added. “I will never join the CCP or its Youth League either.”
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