【Epoch Times, October 17, 2025】Chinese post-2000s youth, Chen Bojun, faced repercussions from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after participating in the Blank Paper Movement. He took the risk to come to the United States and faced transnational persecution from the CCP. As an awakened young person, he urges Chinese youth to withdraw early and not stand with the CCP.
On October 12, the third anniversary of Hu Xinyu’s case, the New York branch of the Chinese Democratic and Human Rights Alliance and the Democratic Initiative Against the CCP held their 255th rally in front of the Flushing Library in New York. Banners condemning the CCP’s live organ harvesting such as “Where is 15-year-old Hu Xinyu? Our children’s organs are not state-owned organs.” and “End CCP” were displayed, condemning the CCP’s crimes.
The organizer Chen Bojun recently told Epoch Times that organizing such activities abroad feels very difficult as some forces from the CCP try every means to obstruct them, attempting to prevent them from holding anti-CCP events. Especially in Chinatown, there were pro-CCP people who came to insult them on the spot. However, they persisted.
Approaching the National Day “October 1”, Chen Bojun also received information from his hometown. The State Security Bureau in Hainan requested him to return to China, accusing him of colluding with foreign forces, attempting to subvert the state power, and continuously harassing his family members in China.
He said, “Now the (State Security) has summoned all my family members to the police station for investigation. My aunt, father, everyone at home has been summoned. My aunt calls me every day, cursing me, asking when I will return to China? What are you doing in America after all?”
In November last year, Chen Bojun entered the United States through unconventional means, participated in activities supporting Peng Zaizhou, and recently hosted an event condemning the CCP’s live organ harvesting. He stated that participating in these activities came from his inner conviction because the Communist Party is inherently evil from any perspective and goes against the principles of heaven.
“We are free overseas, so I must speak up for justice, for freedom, and expose the true face of the CCP to the world,” he said.
Chen Bojun comes from a broken family and was sent to study high school in Australia by his parents at the age of 15. In July 2022, when he was supposed to enter his senior year, his parents cut off his tuition support, forcing him to return to China.
During the lockdown due to the epidemic at that time, he could only return to the mainland through Hong Kong. He was quarantined for a month in Hong Kong and then another month in Shenzhen. The quarantine costs nearly 30,000 yuan, depleting the savings he had worked hard to accumulate.
When the quarantine ended in September 2022, he was penniless and worked in a hotel in Shenzhen to make money. He found that the pandemic had a significant impact on the hotel industry since intermittent lockdowns meant hotels could not operate normally.
“Hotel guests had to undergo nucleic acid testing every day and clock in. Once a case was detected, the place would be locked down, and the entire area could not be used. Infected guests would be taken to makeshift hospitals for so-called treatment, and the entire floor of guests would be quarantined for observation for two weeks,” he said.
“It was a huge blow to the entire industry. Of course, some hotels were designated as quarantine hotels and made money, but this all had to do with the government; only those with connections could secure this exclusive business,” he added.
On November 24, a major fire in a residential area in Urumqi, Xinjiang, caused severe casualties due to extreme lockdown measures. Starting from November 26, people in various parts of China initiated mourning events to commemorate the victims and protest the lockdown, including many young people.
Chen Bojun mentioned that he was first inspired by the Toutong Bridge incident, where Peng Zaizhou hung banners advocating for democracy on the bridge. Moving on to the Urumqi fire in November, he felt indignant, asking, “Why is the country like this? Why does the CCP continue inhumanly locking down cities and aiming for zero cases?”
He began promoting the Blank Paper Movement among his colleagues, posting photos of himself holding blank paper in group chats to protest the lockdown. He also arranged for his companions to attend a commemorative event at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center on the night of November 24.
Recalling the event, Chen Bojun said, “I arrived at the convention center by subway at 6 o’clock, and many people were already there setting up fresh flowers and candles, marking the date of the event – 1124 (November 24). We stood around the candles, each holding a piece of blank paper.”
“The organizers took the microphone and said to pray for the victims for 10 minutes. At that time, many passersby were there, some took videos with their phones, or asked us what we were doing, and some of them even joined us. After the mourning, we held up the A4-sized blank paper and said: No to nucleic acid, we want to eat; No more lockdown, we want freedom; No lies, we want dignity… later I shouted out: Xi Jinping step down!”
“The crowd gathered more and more in the square. Finally, we all shouted unanimously: Down with the Communist Party! Xi Jinping step down! It lasted until about 8 o’clock. Suddenly, sirens blared, and seven or eight police cars arrived, with five to six people coming out of each car, dispersing the crowd and pushing the person holding the microphone to the ground.”
The scene was chaotic, and he felt extremely scared, quickly ran towards the subway station with a companion, not daring to look back, worrying about unsecure security checks at the subway. They took a taxi and left. They returned home around 9 o’clock that night, locking the door and not sleeping well all night out of nervousness.
Subsequently, several friends lost contact one after another. On the 28th, a companion sent Chen Bojun a message: “Run quickly.” When he called back, a recorded message said, “The phone you dialed is turned off.” He dared not stay in the rental house and ended up living at a colleague’s house for over a month.
Regarding the Blank Paper Movement, CCP leader Xi Jinping mentioned to visiting EU officials in December 2022 that protests in China were due to “encountering problems three years after the pandemic, with university students or teenagers feeling frustrated.”
However, after the comprehensive lifting of restrictions in 2023, Chen Bojun learned from old classmates that the CCP had begun to settle scores post facto, with orders given to arrest all those involved in the Blank Paper Movement nation-wide and harshly punish them. Secret arrests had already begun in various regions as authorities were concerned that massive arrests would lead to social unrest, furthering Chen Bojun’s fear.
Amidst many incidents such as the Hu Xinyu case, as well as the mysterious disappearance of many young individuals, he realized he needed to save money and prepare to flee.
In April 2024, Chen Bojun felt he could not delay any longer, living each day in fear and worrying about losing contact at any moment. He felt Hong Kong was no longer safe, so he traveled from Shenzhen to Macau, where he was checked, had to show a return ticket, and then was allowed to pass.
He left Macau that day and arrived in Thailand, proceeding onwards through Doha, Cairo, Madrid, until he felt slightly relieved in Ecuador. He and his companions traveled from Quito north to Colombia, starting their journey through the rainforest, crossing several mountains.
While climbing the mountains, they encountered heavy rain making the ground slippery with yellow mud. Chen Bojun stumbled and scraped off a layer of skin on his arm. Due to the rushed journey, they had minimal medical supplies. It wasn’t until the second night at around six or seven o’clock that they managed to get out of the rainforest.
“I spent my 20th birthday in the rainforest. The first night, I felt utterly exhausted. Climbing over mountains, crossing rivers, the currents were strong, combined with my injury, I felt like I was about to die. By the next day, my mental state was already very bad, feeling like I might not make it out. It was sheer determination that kept me going, and then I made it out,” Chen Bojun said.
After resting briefly in a refugee camp in Panama, he continued his journey, arriving in Tijuana. When he took a taxi, they were robbed. The robbers took him to a secluded alley, one person pointed a gun at his head, while another searched his bag, taking all his cash, phone, and valuable belongings.
“Watching them get into the taxi, I quickly ran with my bag. I had just turned 20, running while crying…,” he sat down in despair on the street. A Mexican woman felt sorry for him seeing him cry so hard, approached him, took him home, and gave him food.
The next day, the woman brought him to the mountains near the US-Mexico border, where he joined Mexican migrants in crossing. Around 11 am on May 26, he officially arrived in the United States. The police of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gave him a water bottle, and he boarded the border patrol car. The next day, friends from Los Angeles came to pick him up.
Chen Bojun remarked that the perilous journey was a necessary path towards freedom. “It was worth it. I cannot live in a communist world, in a dictatorial world, because this is the price I paid for freedom. God blessed, allowing me to reach the United States after enduring so many hardships.”
He believes that today’s youth are awakening, with many already seeing through the true nature of the CCP and the Communist Party as a whole, lacking only the right opportunity. The Blank Paper Movement served as an opportunity, and he believes there will be more in the future. Despite the suppression of the Blank Paper Movement, it showed people that there is hope for change in China.
Regarding the CCP’s transnational suppression, Chen Bojun believes this is an inevitable move for the CCP, aiming to turn Western countries into communist states and silence those who resist them. However, the CCP’s repression of dissidents abroad only serves to further expose its true nature to Western countries, alerting them on how to deal with the CCP. The United States and Australia have already woken up to this reality, making the CCP’s suppression and persecution of people like him less effective.
In conclusion, he urges the youth of China to recognize the true face of the CCP early, withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party, and quit the Communist Youth League. “Because the Communist Party is a cult that erodes the soul. If you continue to stand for the CCP, God will not be on your side, and when divine punishment comes, it will take away those people. Only by quitting the Communist Party can you stand on the right side and ensure your safety,” he emphasized.