Respected guests, friends with common beliefs and goals: Hello everyone!
My name is Liu Dongling, I come from China, and I am an advocate dedicated to promoting freedom of speech in China. Today we are gathered here to commemorate World Press Freedom Day together.
This is not only a moment for reflection and introspection, but also a gathering to inspire each other’s beliefs. Here, I express my deepest respect to all present and to the warriors who have suffered injustice or cruel persecution for seeking truth and expressing freedom.
We know that globally, both in the past and present, countless journalists and media workers have faced a well-known risk: being threatened, imprisoned, tortured, or even losing their lives simply because they exercised the basic human right of freedom of speech.
I myself am one of many persecuted individuals. For initiating the movement to tear down the Great Firewall and promote freedom of speech with people like Yang Zewei, I have been threatened, harassed, and intimidated by the Chinese government, leading to years of living in exile and uncertainty. Fortunately, I have managed to escape to Sweden, a democratic and just country, where the Chinese government has no authority to extradite me back. I am grateful for this.
Since the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, China’s control over speech has become increasingly stringent, rendering press freedom virtually non-existent. Even today, numerous journalists, writers, and citizens are convicted for their words, especially in regions like Xinjiang and Tibet, where people are persecuted, tortured, disappeared, or killed for asserting their faith and freedom of expression.
According to statistics, by 2024, China has detained 118 writers and journalists in recent years, completely banning their works, whether in print publications, e-books, or online articles, preventing them from circulating within China. This systematic eradication of intellectual and textual freedom cuts off people’s access to independent thinking resources, causing Chinese society to become more closed off and increasingly silent. In this area, the Chinese authorities have long maintained a leading international position.
Here, I would like to mention a few persecuted individuals: from both domestic and international realms, Mr. Gui Minhai, a Swedish publisher who has been detained for ten years for attempting to publish books exposing Chinese political issues; Mr. Dawit Isaak, a Swedish journalist of Eritrean descent imprisoned in Eritrea for over twenty years; Mr. Joakim Medin arrested in Turkey awaiting freedom; Mr. Yang Zewei, sentenced to prison by the Chinese government for deeply investigating the operation mechanism of the “Great Firewall of China,” revealing its systematic blockage of domestic freedom of speech; Mr. Ruan Xiaohuan (blog name “Programming Thinker”), who assists in releasing technical information to help Chinese citizens bypass internet censorship and access the outside world’s truth. They have been convicted on charges such as “endangering national security,” which is the Chinese Communist Party’s suppression of freedom of knowledge and information.
As for me, I have faced threats and harassment from the Chinese government for advocating for freedom of speech and tearing down the Great Firewall, which is why I am here to speak to all of you!
These cases serve as irrefutable evidence, revealing that in some authoritarian regimes, “freedom of speech” is not only restricted but also becomes a high-risk behavior. This reality should not be overlooked by the democratic world.
I believe that the concepts of freedom, rule of law, autonomy, property rights, and personal protection on which civilized political order depends are not “invented” or “enacted” by any government from top to bottom but are deeply rooted in family and social life, growing from the bottom up.
Therefore, I have long advocated for starting at the family level, dismantling the Great Firewall of China for children. In China, the collapse of intergenerational ethics and humanistic cultivation in the vast majority of families often begins with depriving children of access to the world and thus isolating them from the truth. If parents do not help them climb over the wall, children cannot watch platforms like YouTube, X, and more, cannot use English-American systems for language and thought learning, leading to an incomplete personality and an inability to connect with universal civilization.
For example, my children have been using “Khan Academy” for an extended period, a website banned in China because its content involves science and academic freedom: the platform emphasizes independent learning and critical thinking, and certain content (such as history, politics, religion) conflicts with the official educational policies of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Great Firewall of China (GFW) monitors all international gateways and individual communications, interfering with, obstructing, and blocking transmissions deemed not in compliance with the CCP’s requirements. Due to extensive online censorship in China, websites and speech containing “inappropriate” content within the mainland face direct administrative intervention from the government; even though the content of “Khan Academy” is neutral, the platform has never cooperated with CCP supervision and thus has never been approved by Beijing authorities.
Climbing over the wall to see the world is not just a technical issue but a necessary step in shaping a child’s worldview, life view, and values. For every family living in China, avoiding grand narratives, starting from family life, and exercising freedom of information choice is the true path to societal transformation.
Therefore, as a mother of two children, I cannot tolerate my children being forced to accept the suffocating “red scarf” education under the Great Firewall of China. I believe all parents can understand this anxiety and responsibility. Saving our next generation, saving the children of millions of families is not someone else’s responsibility but the mission and duty of our generation.
In my dreams, I long for all countries and people who pursue freedom and democracy to unite and seek justice through necessary means, urging authoritarian regimes to release journalists and free media workers who convey the truth.
Let us work together to speak up for press freedom and fight for the future possibilities of every child.
Because breaking through the Great Firewall is not just a technical act but the awakening of will, a leap from freedom of information to bodily freedom.
When walls block information, we climb over them; when walls encircle bodies, we leap over them.
Some may say this is a “hitting a stone with an egg” struggle. But as the stirring line from the South Korean documentary film “The Attorney” goes: “Hitting a stone with an egg may crack the shell, but as long as the egg has life, it can hatch into a chick, leaping over the high wall.”
We are those eggs full of vitality, and as long as we do not give up the belief in freedom, one day, countless chicks will cross the high wall, freely chirping in the sunlight.
Thank you!