Initiator of the Wall-Dismantling Movement, Joe Xinxin, who was arrested by the CCP overseas a year ago, and another co-initiator, Feng Ye, managed to escape to the United States after many twists and turns. Feng Ye expressed gratitude to God for opening a way for him, while strongly protesting against the CCP’s violation of international law by suppressing dissenters across borders.
“This is all God’s arrangement!” Feng Ye said in an exclusive interview with Epoch Times. He met Joe Xinxin (real name Yang Zewei) through a friend’s introduction in Thailand in September 2022 because their thoughts were similar. They used to hang out together, ride bicycles, visit waterfalls, and go swimming.
In early March 2023, Joe Xinxin initiated the Wall-Dismantling Movement, calling on netizens around the world to unite and dismantle the “cyber Berlin Wall” together. The CCP’s firewall is seen as an information war launched against the free world and a very serious crime against humanity.
A few months later, Joe Xinxin was arrested by the CCP across borders at his home in Vientiane, Laos. The outside world believes he was too careless and underestimated the evil of the CCP. But Feng Ye said, “He was not ‘careless,’ he was ‘firm in righteousness,’ he was truly a bit like Tan Sitong. I admire him a lot. He is willing to sacrifice for what he believes in. If he is a Christian, he is definitely a very qualified one.”
“He said, ‘If something happens to me, it means our work has been effective, that’s the first thing. Second, my wish is to change China, to let the people live a happy life. If I am really arrested, it will be a glorious entry on my resume, being arrested and imprisoned because of the CCP, this is a medal, an honor.’ I really admire him. His strong momentum towards progress is what the CCP fears the most.”
Feng Ye, from Nanning in Guangxi, worked in a bank, part-time as a chef, a bartender, and had been engaged in charity work for thirty years, forming teams to help with education, assist elderly widows, leprosy patients, and war veterans. The charity environment in China is harsh, and through this, he came to understand the darkness of the CCP and its oppression of vulnerable groups.
In 2016, Feng Ye’s old home was forcibly demolished, the house reduced to rubble, and his parents sent to a nursing home. The old house was in one of the oldest alleys in Nanning, a once prosperous area from the late Ming Dynasty through the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. It held all his childhood memories. During the demolition, he lost his job at the bank, was beaten up for suing the city government and labeled with a “car accident” as the reason for being sent to the hospital with a shattered left wrist.
In early 2020, the Wuhan epidemic broke out. On January 31, 2020, Feng Ye decided to leave China. “Because I have seen through their (authorities’) lies,” Feng Ye said.
In March 2023, Joe Xinxin returned from a visit to his hometown in Hunan, and Feng Ye went to Joe Xinxin’s house to have hotpot. Joe said: “I want to start a wall-dismantling movement, an anti-CCP movement, do you have the courage to participate?”
Feng Ye replied, “Brother, you asked the wrong person, I have been anti-CCP for many years!”
Joe asked, “Really?”
Feng Ye said, “Of course, really, some time ago, I went to protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in Laos.”
Before that, the two of them never easily delved into politics. Feng Ye found a picture, where he was holding a sign demanding the Chinese government publicly apologize and compensate, to restore the honor of the war veterans. Because the war veterans are heroes, but have always been labeled as ‘Kuomintang reactionaries’, ‘counter-revolutionaries,’ in a miserable situation, so Feng Ye has been working on veteran projects with a sense of atonement, “because our whole nation owes them,” he said.
Joe Xinxin was quick-witted and decisive, a socialite who suited the role of a vanguard, while Feng Ye was willing to be a strategist. They reached a consensus: to dismantle walls, not only the cyber firewall but also the walls in everyone’s hearts, and most importantly, to expose to the world the harm the CCP’s firewall poses to the entire civilized world.
On March 8, 2023, the Wall-Dismantling Movement was officially established; on April 5, the “Wall-Dismantling Bible” was released, and they started printing and distributing propaganda; in late April, Joe Xinxin and Feng Ye held signs at the EU office in Vientiane and in front of the embassies of Japan, the UK, and other countries, calling for the dismantling of the “cyber firewall” used by the CCP to block information.
“We organized professional discussions; entered major media outlets in various countries, which was Joe Xinxin’s responsibility because he can speak several languages; we collaborated with the ‘Evil List’ to investigate and publicize the background information of those involved in building the CCP’s firewall; we have consulted friends in the United States to see if it is possible to sue Cisco; we also need to apply for funding… as we were making progress, Joe Xinxin ran into trouble,” Feng Ye said.
He revealed that Joe had a habit of swimming in the Mekong River every afternoon around five o’clock until dark. He had warned Joe multiple times to come back at least by daylight.
In mid-April, Joe’s family was visited by CCP police, issuing a transnational threat to him. In early June, Joe was secretly arrested by the CCP in Vientiane and extradited back to China. In July, Joe’s family received an arrest warrant, and he was arrested by the CCP on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.”
Feng Ye told reporters that Joe Xinxin had a legal visa in Laos. Initially a work visa, he later relied on savings from freelance work for his expenses and did not have the money to renew his work visa (which costs $400 for one year), so he had to renew on a tourist visa (costing 200 RMB). Due to increasing danger, he advised Joe Xinxin to switch to Thailand first, but Joe did not listen.
On June 2, in the work group of the Wall-Dismantling Movement, everyone felt something was wrong as Joe Xinxin had been offline for two days. Late that night, Feng Ye sneaked into Joe Xinxin’s residence to check on him. Due to insufficient funds, Joe Xinxin lived in a deep alley near the Sanjiang Business City, a secluded location.
Feng Ye noticed a car parked at the opposite supermarket near the entrance of the alley, which seemed suspicious. He sat at the entrance for more than ten minutes, positioning his motorcycle, and walked into the alley with a powerful flashlight. It was a dead-end alley, with only a few households inside. Halfway through, two motorcycles arrived, one with two people, some Laotian and some with Chinese faces. He stepped aside as the motorcycles stopped in front of a yard.
Feng Ye continued walking, shining the flashlight towards Joe’s house. The room had no lights on, the door was tightly locked, shining the flashlight inside, he saw the furniture but no one inside. Feng Ye felt that Joe was suddenly taken away, and at this point, there was no need to linger, feeling scared, he quickly turned to leave and started his motorcycle.
He noticed someone was following him. First, a car blocked his way, which he avoided cautiously, then a motorcycle caught up, with a Chinese man shouting at him, “You don’t need to run! We know who you are! No matter where you run, it’s useless, we will find you for sure!”
Feng Ye felt the man had a Hunan accent, so he desperately ran in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe, a famous landmark in Vientiane, brightly lit with many people. After shaking off his pursuers, he circled around several times before returning home half an hour later, quietly messaging the group in the living room.
At three in the morning, three people suddenly appeared in the yard, peering into the iron grille of the window. Feng Ye didn’t turn on the lights, hiding behind the door. After about ten minutes, they left. After confirming they were gone, Feng Ye went out and informed his wife, “Pack up at dawn and move to your school dormitory, I need to go into hiding.”
(To be continued)