By Laurie Chen
BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese director who made a film about the 2022 “white paper” demonstrations against China’s COVID restrictions was sentenced to three and a half years in prison by a Shanghai court this week, his former lawyer said.
In the protests, people held up blank, white sheets of paper as a symbol of defiance against government efforts to censor criticism of the zero-COVID policy.
The nationwide protests were the largest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations and unprecedented since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
A judge sentenced Chen Pinlin, 33, to jail for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in a closed-door trial on Monday, Daniel Fang, who handled Chen’s case before leaving China last year, told Reuters. He cited people familiar with the case.
Chen, who had pleaded guilty, plans to appeal against the sentence, Fang cited the people as saying.
The Shanghai Baoshan District People’s Court did not respond to a request seeking comment.
“Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” is a charge commonly used by the Chinese government against dissidents and human rights activists. It carries a maximum prison term of five years.
“Documentary filmmaker Chen Pinlin was only serving the public interest by documenting an historic episode of protest against censorship,” said Aleksandra Bielakowska, advocacy managers at Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
“We call on the international community to increase pressure on the regime to secure the release of Chen Pinlin, along with the 123 other journalists and press freedom defenders currently detained in the country.”
FILM
Chen’s 77-minute film, titled “Urumqi Road”, was uploaded to YouTube in late 2023 under his pseudonym “Plato”.
It consists of footage filmed by Chen in Shanghai as well as video clips posted by internet users which were quickly scrubbed from Chinese social media.
He was detained by Shanghai police in late November 2023 and formally arrested in January last year, according to Amnesty International.
While the protests were quickly suppressed by police, they helped hasten the end of three years of some of the world’s strictest pandemic curbs.
Throughout the pandemic China had said its strict COVID measures were necessary to save lives and ensure people’s health, before abruptly ending them in late 2022.
The protests were mostly focused on the COVID restrictions, but some protesters in Beijing also demanded freedom of speech and democracy.
Those who took part in the white paper protests say that following China’s re-opening from COVID, the Chinese government has continued to suppress public efforts to mourn pandemic victims and to commemorate the demonstrations.
At the time, police interrogated and briefly detained dozens of participants, while a handful of women were detained for four months in Beijing, according to rights’ groups, protesters and friends of those affected.
Chen’s film continues to be screened outside China by rights activists and Chinese communities.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen; Editing by Neil Fullick)
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