A cartoon cat on social media [x.com] has attracted more than a million followers and China's censors hate it. Meet Teacher Li, "China's most feared cat."
On X, unfettered by China's censors, yet accessible through virtual private networks, Mr Li's following grew. But it only really exploded, to more than a million, in late 2022 during the White Paper protests against China's punishing zero-Covid measures. His account became an important clearing house for protest information; at one point, he was deluged with messages every second. Mr Li hardly slept, fact-checking and posting submissions that racked up hundreds of millions of views.Online death threats from anonymous accounts soon followed. He said the authorities arrived at his parents' home in China to question them. Even then, he was sure life would return to normal once the protests died down.
"After I finished reporting on the White Paper movement, I thought that the most important thing I could ever do in this life was finished," he said. "I didn't think about continuing to operate this account. But just as I was thinking about what I should do next, suddenly all my bank accounts in China were frozen.
"That's when I realised – I couldn't go back anymore."
Fascinating that all these news outlets will write long stories about an account they don't link to.
