At the age of 40, Qin Jianbo reflected on his life with regret: having been fed a mind full of useless social and economic theories during his time at university, he could only find labor work after graduation, toiling hard but achieving nothing. Through his own hardships and a chance encounter, this former “pinkie” finally realized that he was just a “human resource” for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Qin Jianbo, born in Chongqing in 1984, graduated from university in 2007. In a recent interview with Epoch Times, he recounted his journey of breaking free from blindly accepting CCP indoctrination as a “pinkie.” Realizing the meaninglessness of his existence under CCP rule, Qin Jianbo eventually fled China, escaping to Europe via Hong Kong in March 2025.
Describing his process of awakening and transformation, Qin Jianbo delved into his own hardships, societal injustices, and the brutal history of the CCP that he discovered after crossing the ideological barrier and exiting the Communist Party organization.
Growing up in a rural area with parents who were farmers, Qin Jianbo was able to attend university due to their hard work. He majored in International Economics and Trade at Chongqing University, hoping to secure a stable job upon graduation. However, he faced the harsh reality of being unable to find a job in his field and had to rely on odd jobs to make ends meet. He worked as a salesperson and later as a carpenter on construction sites.
Reflecting on his struggle to find employment after graduating in 2007, Qin Jianbo explained, “Because our universities didn’t actually teach us anything.” He elaborated, “We learned all the wrong theories and knowledge, Marxist economics, Deng Xiaoping’s economic theories, and even Keynesian economics… all these incorrect economic theories.”
“These theories are completely different from the ideas of free-market economics, and learning these wrong theories led to misguided guidance in my future work and life – my thinking was confused, so my work didn’t go smoothly.”
Former Associate Professor Li Yuanhua of Beijing Normal University once told Epoch Times that many Chinese universities view enrollment as a “means of making money, rather than an opportunity to cultivate talents.” After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese universities started admitting qualified students again, but with higher education opportunities being scarce, the university enrollment rate was only 2.7% of the eligible population in 1978. By 1999, the CCP began expanding higher education enrollment, and by 2023, the gross enrollment rate in Chinese higher education had reached 60.2%.
Today, many Chinese university graduates end up working as ride-hailing drivers and couriers after graduation.
Qin Jianbo’s experience working on construction sites led him to feel judged even as a carpenter. He remarked, “As a university graduate wearing glasses, why do you do this work? People would look down on you… it made me feel very painful.”
He lamented, “No matter how hard I worked, all the sacrifices I made didn’t translate into income. Throughout the year, I couldn’t save any money and just managed to get by.”
Despite his struggle to make ends meet, Qin Jianbo had previously blindly followed the CCP’s official propaganda – fostering hatred towards Japan, refusing to consider buying Japanese products, exclusively using Huawei for phones and computers, and attacking, insulting, and criticizing those who spoke against the CCP, while supporting and spreading the views of other “pinkies” online.
Regarding the Taiwan issue, Qin Jianbo promoted the idea of “reunification” online, claiming it would happen the next day and that Taiwan would soon become part of China, encouraging Taiwanese people to accept Chinese citizenship and more.
What prompted Qin Jianbo to start reflecting was the Li Yixue incident. Qin Jianbo recounted that after reading the comments under Li Yixue’s video, he felt a “slight touch.” Through subsequent interactions and video chats with an “8964” veteran of the democracy movement, he learned about the Tiananmen Square massacre where many students were brutally suppressed by the CCP, leading to numerous deaths.
“He told me about the events of ‘8964,’ how many students in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square were brutally suppressed by the Communist Party, and many students died,” Qin Jianbo said. “We felt that these students were young and promising, only striving for democracy, yet they faced brutal repression. At that time, it was unbelievable.”
Through the unfolding of the Li Yixue incident, Qin Jianbo came to realize that “the CCP is a violent regime.” He remarked, “I thought, this young girl was fighting against the entire violent state apparatus, which is why she faced brutal repression, and up to now, she has completely disappeared without any news, and has likely been killed by the CCP.”
Li Yixue, in her early twenties, was from Jiangxi and graduated from Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics. In April 2022, she accused a police auxiliary named Lai of molesting her to the local public security bureau, after which she was forcibly sent to a mental hospital in Jiangxi Province for so-called “treatment” lasting 56 days. Upon her release, Li Yixue began releasing videos detailing her experiences, accusing the local mental hospital of becoming a black prison run by the police, and sued the Jiangxi Provincial Mental Hospital for “medical liability disputes.” Her case garnered significant public attention.
Li Yixue’s final two videos were released on December 14, 2024. In one, she narrated how the local police station chief and over ten men barged into her home, vandalizing the surveillance cameras outside her door. In another, she appealed to netizens for help, saying, “Save me, they are too terrifying, over a dozen men are against me.” Following this, Li Yixue never updated her status again.
Amidst the heightened public attention, on December 22, the West Lake Sub-bureau of the Nanchang Public Security Bureau and the Nanpu Street Office of West Lake District issued a situation report declaring that based on the evaluation of the Beijing Anding Hospital, on December 22, “she was sent for treatment in accordance with laws and regulations,” implying that Li Yixue had once again been subjected to persecution and placed in a mental hospital.
Due to his attention to hot-button events, Qin Jianbo’s Douyin account was first restricted and then completely shut down. Following the abduction of mainland actor Wang Xing, it was revealed that the protection behind the Myanmar North fraud ring was the CCP, a moment of realization for Qin Jianbo.
Qin Jianbo stated, “Through this process, I feel that I am not the successor of socialism, nor the master of any country. I am just a follower, a resource of this country, a tool for the CCP.”
Deciding to sever ties completely with the CCP, Qin Jianbo withdrew from the team organizations he once belonged to.
Regarding his current understanding of the CCP, Qin Jianbo emphasized, “The CCP is a terrorist regime that forcefully occupies and rules the Chinese people with lies and violence, causing endless suffering and exploitation. It is an illegal government, a cruel system of violence, where all Chinese people have become prisoners of the Communist Party.”
By circumventing the censorship and seeing various atrocities in CCP history, Qin Jianbo understood that the Communist Party is the root cause of all the hardships faced by the Chinese people. He asserted, “I will no longer love the Communist Party, I will no longer love the government.”
“Just thinking about escaping this place, never to return, and then hurriedly escaping the rule of the Chinese Communist Party,” Qin Jianbo fled to Europe through Hong Kong in March of this year.