Recent revelations from the “Break the Wall Movement” have uncovered that the founder of the movement, Qiao Xinxin, is facing various forms of persecution in prison for his continuous anti-communist stance and calls for dismantling online censorship. He has been subjected to mistreatment by prison authorities, including physical assault, long hours of labor, solitary confinement, and brutal use of “restraint belts.”
Qiao Xinxin is currently being held in the notorious political prisoner concentration camp, the first section of Chishan Prison in Hunan.
In a recent interview with a reporter from Epoch Times, overseas “Break the Wall Movement” leader Liu Dongling revealed, “Qiao Xinxin has been promoting anti-communist views and advocating for breaking the wall while serving his sentence. He wrote messages against the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping’s regime on the sewing machine he was forced to operate. Consequently, he has become a thorn in the eyes of prison guards, who have assigned several inmates to monitor his every move.”
It is reported that the first section of Chishan Prison is the most severe and oppressive environment within the entire prison. Inmates are forced to engage in high-intensity labor producing military rubber shoes exported to Africa. In such conditions, Qiao Xinxin has experienced severe physical exhaustion and resistance. However, his resistance has been met with barbaric acts by the prison authorities, including violent beatings, pepper spray attacks, solitary confinement, and even the use of extremely cruel “restraint belts” to immobilize him on an iron bed, leading to loss of bodily functions.
Liu Dongling expressed, “This inhumane torture has inflicted torment upon his body and mind far exceeding even death. Qiao Xinxin is risking his life in prison for advocating freedom of speech and defending the public’s right to know. We urgently call on the international community and people of justice to closely monitor Qiao Xinxin’s situation in prison. We strongly condemn the atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist regime! We urge the CCP to immediately cease the persecution and unconditionally release Qiao Xinxin!”
Qiao Xinxin, originally Yang Zewei, was born in August 1986 in Qidong County, Hunan Province. He is the founder of the “Break the Wall Movement (BanGFW)” and the author and promoter of the “Break the Wall Bible.”
Since the late 1990s, the Chinese Communist authorities have established the “Great Firewall (GFW)” and implemented strict internet censorship. Feeling the severe restrictions of the Great Firewall on accessing real information, Qiao Xinxin, while living in China, began to advocate for the dismantling of the censorship. After relocating to Laos, he devoted himself to promoting the “Break the Wall Movement.”
In March 2023, Qiao Xinxin officially launched the “Break the Wall Movement” with several overseas democracy advocates. He pointed out that China’s internet firewall isolates 1.4 billion Chinese people from the world and called for the complete removal of this information barrier, introducing the highly practical “Break the Wall Bible.”
On May 31, 2023, Qiao Xinxin was unexpectedly arrested by Chinese authorities while in Laos. On July 7 of the same year, the Hengyang City Procuratorate approved the arrest of Yang Zewei (Qiao Xinxin) on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” He was secretly tried by the Chinese Communist authorities and sentenced to five years in prison, with the term ending on May 30, 2028.