Dear Norm,
We went to the vigil held in Columbia in commemoration of the Urumqi fire victims last night. It was a huge turnout, way more people than I expected, probably more than a thousand. We were observing and trying to see if the gathering was authentic/organic (I don’t know, people are arguing online about “western influences” on those protests in China – a color revolution?). It was well organized and peaceful, people received a piece of paper informing what’s going on with China’s stringent Zero Covid policy and its atrocities. We left after about an hour.

I have reservations about overseas protests in support of domestic struggles in China – I (kind of) know these people. I was once involved in the dissidents community in New York, and most of them are gross men using it for various purposes, not all of them benign. There’s a lot of corruption and abuse within this community, and I left because I was targeted as a new immigrant and young woman. Their protests sometimes feel like a show. For one, it does absolutely nothing to help people inside China in any meaningful way. Ironically, they help flame the western narrative that “China is bad”, feeding racism, xenophobia, imperialism and colonialism. (Not sure if they’re aware of it – given their poor understanding of the society they’re actually living in, probably not.)

I don’t know if the accusations that “foreign forces” aiming at a color revolution are at play in China’s streets are true. Yes there are western journalists present, and the media is having a field day announcing Chinese people want a regime change (most people don’t even know about the protests). There are overseas organizers contacting mainland people and talking about strategies. I wonder if these overseas organizers (the community I was once in) are being paid by any “democracy” foundations tied to the CIA or something. I don’t know their  internal functions but as far as I know, they are getting at least some money from outside sources that’s not their “day job”.

What do you think?

Love,
Y