Huang Xueqin: "How can any reporter not speak out?"

(Originally published on October 26, 2021)

[Editor's Note]: This article is jointly produced by Initium Media and NGOCN Voice Project and first published on Initium Media.

Huang Xueqin is an independent investigative journalist and feminist activist in China. She worked for state-owned media such as Xin Kuai Bao and Nandu Weekly, but later resigned to become an independent journalist. In 2018, she was deeply involved in promoting the #MeToo movement in China, supported many individual cases of rights protection, and launched a series of anti-sexual harassment actions. In 2019, she participated in the anti-extradition bill march in Hong Kong and published a documentary article under her real name. As a result, she was criminally detained by the Chinese authorities for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" and was taken into custody for three months under compulsory measures of "residential surveillance at a designated location". She was originally scheduled to study for a master's degree in law at the University of Hong Kong in September of that year, but was unable to go because of her arrest. She was released on bail on January 17, 2020. In the fall of 2021, Huang Xueqin received support from the Chevening Scholarship in the UK. She originally planned to go to the University of Sussex to study for a master's degree in gender and development on September 20, but was again unable to go because of her arrest.

On September 19, 2021, Huang Xueqin and Guangzhou occupational disease rights advocate Wang Jianbing were suddenly arrested by Guangzhou police. The police arrested the two at Wang Jianbing's residence on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power" and suspected that they had taken compulsory measures of "residential surveillance at a designated location". The main reason may be related to the daily gatherings of friends at Wang Jianbing's home. At the repeated requests of the family members, the police not only refused to issue a notice to the family members, but also refused to inform the two of the suspected crimes and what compulsory measures were taken. In addition, the police asked the family members to remain silent about the incident, not to communicate with the outside world, and not to accept media interviews. October 26 was the 37th day since the two lost contact, and their relatives and friends still had not been informed of the detention of the two (according to Chinese law, the public security organs can detain citizens for up to 37 days before the procuratorate approves the arrest or release).

In October 2020, a typhoon was coming. Huang Xueqin planned to remove the surveillance camera downstairs, and was happy to see the severe weather warning on her mobile phone.

More than half a year has passed since she was released on bail, but her life has not returned to normal. Because of participating in and recording the anti-extradition bill movement in Hong Kong, she was detained for three months and was included in a list of regular "visits" by the National Security Bureau (police responsible for China's domestic security). In addition to dealing with daily harassment by the police and dealing with the damage caused by the arrest, she also had to find ways to relieve the pressure and trauma caused to her family. In addition, due to the restrictions on bail, she was unable to disclose her experience during the period of residential surveillance at a designated location. For a journalist who insists on speaking freely, the sense of deprivation and oppression brought to her is even greater than that of ordinary people.

One day, Huang Xueqin went downstairs to walk her dog and found a camera on the garbage sorting station at the entrance of the stairs. She went to the other 20 garbage sorting stations in the community and confirmed that only her house had one. It was obvious that the camera was installed for her.

Huang Xueqin decided to smash the camera during the typhoon.

The idea of ​​"smashing it" inspired her friends. As a journalist who started the #metoo movement in China with her reports, Huang Xueqin has always insisted on fighting for social justice in a peaceful and rational way: she made independent investigation reports, wrote and recorded social injustice, linked resources to victims for rights protection, initiated joint appeals, gave public speeches and organized training. Friends thought Huang Xueqin's approach had always been gentle, so when she proposed to smash the camera, they expressed their support and even helped her think of many ways to smash it.

The typhoon came and went, and Huang Xueqin finally chose a more "Xueqin" way to express her protest. Every day when she went out to walk her dog, she went under the camera and held up a sign that read "Illegal installation of cameras, demanding information disclosure"; she sang "Do you hear the people sing?" and was ready to read "1984" under the camera. When the national security officers interviewed her again, she hand-copied the recently promulgated "Personal Information Protection Act" for them and asked them to provide the procedures for installing cameras, purchase costs, etc.

The day after the meeting, Huang Xueqin went downstairs to read a poem to the camera, but found that the camera had been dismantled. She recorded the incident on her social account with the hashtag #抗争有效果.

Being a journalist and exercising supervisory rights is "as natural as breathing"

Protester, this was not the role Huang Xueqin originally chose for herself. She was once a member of the state-owned media, believed in reform within the system, and actively wrote and offered suggestions for this purpose.

In 2010, after graduating from university, Huang Xueqin became a reporter for the Guangdong branch of China News Service, and later joined emerging media such as the Xin Kuai Bao and Nandu Weekly as an investigative reporter.

From 2000 to 2015, the Chinese mainland media experienced a glorious but short period of public opinion supervision . The Southern newspaper media, with Southern Weekend and Southern Metropolis Daily as the core, was one of the main media forces promoting social reform: in 2003, Southern Metropolis Daily's report on the "Sun Zhigang incident" helped push the government to abolish the "shelter and repatriation system" that had been in place for many years; in the same year, the newspaper broke through the authorities' news blockade and reported on the spread of the SARS epidemic in Guangdong Province, prompting the authorities to release relevant information about the epidemic. In 2012, the "Uncovering Wang Lijun" series of articles in Southern Metropolis Weekly deeply exposed the political struggles of senior CCP officials.

Huang Xueqin entered the media industry at the tail end of this golden age. At that time, her city, Guangzhou, was known as "the closest to civil society in China". She recorded the direct questions from citizens to the mayor on the weekly "Mayor Reception Day". The then Guangzhou Mayor Wan Qingliang was criticized by the media for his statement that "renting a house in Zhujiang Dijing costs 600 yuan a month", and the mayor of the city became a laughing stock. At that time, Huang Xueqin believed that being a journalist and exercising the right to supervise was "as natural as breathing".

Huang Xueqin began to use her pen to expose the dark side of society, hoping to use her reports to promote social change. Her investigative report on the smuggling of suckling pigs from Vietnam led to the resignation of two officials from the local quarantine bureau; her article on autistic children in Shenzhen attracted support from relevant people for the non-governmental organization... At that time, it was also necessary to play games with public power, fight wits and courage with local officials, and try every means to obtain information and publish articles before the ban came - this is a lesson that Chinese journalists have always had to learn.

During that period of her career as a journalist, Huang Xueqin grew up quickly and was very happy. She was not trapped by the sense of emptiness that often appeared later. At least, as a journalist, she could still write about injustice and do the reports she wanted to do. Therefore, Xueqin, like many intellectuals, had confidence in the self-improvement of the system. They believed that through media supervision, intellectuals' advice and suggestions, legal professionals' promotion of the rule of law, and the development of civil society, the system would get better and better. They did not expect that the tight control over speech was tightening step by step.

In early 2013, after the Southern Weekend New Year's message incident, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. Southern media were included in the scope of strong supervision. In February 2016, Xi Jinping inspected CCTV and clearly stated that "Party media belong to the Party" and required news reports to follow "guidance". Previously, the party newspapers ran urban newspapers and market-oriented media space gradually disappeared.

Huang Xueqin watched as the investigative departments of the media were disbanded or reduced in staff. The investigative department she worked in was renamed the "Innovation Department," and the staff went from a dozen to a few, and eventually all left. The space for public opinion within the system is getting smaller and smaller, there are fewer and fewer reports that can be done, and the salary is much lower than before.

In the grim environment, Xueqin resigned from the newspaper in 2015 and decided to become an independent journalist. There is still some space for independent investigative reporting, so she handed over slightly sensitive manuscripts to Internet platforms. If they encounter censorship, the platforms can say that they are not their own reporters and cannot control them; the authors can also say that they are just independent recorders and are not responsible to the institutions.

Huang Xueqin believes in the importance of independent records. She believes that leaving some independent records in the cracks of history may be able to resist the unified narrative of the state apparatus in the future, record and bear witness, so that individual memories will no longer be easily erased or rewritten.

It turns out that you can conduct independent investigations without relying on an organization.

In August 2015, an explosion occurred in a hazardous chemicals warehouse in Tianjin Port due to illegal placement of hazardous chemicals , resulting in 165 deaths and 798 injuries. Among the victims, 99 were firefighters .

Huang Xueqin had just quit her job and was studying in the United States for half a year. After seeing the news and learning that her Chinese counterparts were blocked from the scene, she decided to go to New York to interview the rescue experience and current situation of American firefighters during the 9/11 incident, in order to compare the difficulties faced by Chinese firefighters. After discussing with the editor of a domestic newspaper, she immediately booked a train ticket from Seattle to New York.

On the train, she found the contact information of the relevant departments, sent emails to explain her purpose, and then called one by one to request interviews. She often ran into obstacles. The interviewees repeatedly asked her: Who are you? Which organization do you belong to? What is the purpose of your interview? Why are you suddenly interested in 911 after such a long time? Xueqin answered once, and the call was transferred to another department, who asked the same question again, and so on.

When she arrived in New York, she had to carry her suitcase to City Hall, the New York Police Department, the Fire Department, and coffee shops. Finally, Huang Xueqin found the interviewee and finished writing the manuscript in one breath at Starbucks. It was late at night, and she saw the suitcase next to her and remembered that she had not found a place to stay.

After the article "On the 14th anniversary of 911, more than 3,000 rescuers were diagnosed with cancer" was published, it immediately made headlines in major domestic media. Her colleagues congratulated her on the "viral" article. Huang Xueqin had no time to read the praises and comments. She was in a laundry shop in New York, figuring out how to wash the dirty clothes that had accumulated for a week.

It was also because of this experience of almost sleeping on the streets that Huang Xueqin began to have confidence in becoming an independent journalist: it turned out that she could do independent investigations without relying on an organization.

Afterwards, Huang Xueqin went to Cambodia, walked into a landmine village, visited the former mine-laying and demining soldiers, and learned about the harm the civil war had done to civilians; she went to Singapore to study the garbage classification system and conducted a comparative investigation on the current situation of garbage classification in Guangzhou; she went to prisons and hospitals in Vietnam, writing the story of a Chinese girl who was deceived by African drug dealers into selling drugs and sentenced to life imprisonment in a foreign country.

In addition to these reports, Huang Xueqin is further known for her independent investigative reporting on sexual violence cases and her promotion of the #MeToo movement in China.

An unexpected figure in China's #MeToo movement

In October 2017, American actress Alyssa Milano encouraged women to use the #MeToo hashtag to publicly share their experiences of being assaulted, making people aware of the prevalence of sexual assault and triggering the global #MeToo movement. At the time, Huang Xueqin, who was participating in the Asian Journalist Fellowship Program in Singapore, also talked about sexual harassment with many journalists and learned that most journalists had experienced sexual harassment, but almost all of them remained silent.

Huang Xueqin wanted to know how serious sexual harassment is in the media industry, and why journalists who often speak out for the disadvantaged remain silent when faced with the injustice they encounter. So after returning to China in October, she immediately launched a questionnaire on "Sexual Harassment of Chinese Female Journalists in the Workplace".

At that time, Luo Xixi had just reported to the Discipline Inspection Commission of her alma mater, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, under her real name, about her mentor Chen Xiaowu, who had sexually harassed her more than ten years ago. However, there was no progress. When she was at a loss, she saw the investigation initiated by Huang Xueqin and immediately contacted her to say, "I want to report it under my real name."

After learning about the stories of Luo Xixi and other survivors, Huang Xueqin helped them collect evidence, contact lawyers, and contact the media for reporting. However, traditional media outlets have said that the space for public opinion is limited and the topic is sensitive, and they hope that self-media outlets will expose the incident first so that they can follow up with reports.

Therefore, from January 1 to January 4, 2018, Huang Xueqin published four investigative articles on the "Beihang Sexual Harassment Incident" on her official account, including Luo Xixi's real-name report letter, the stories of many survivors, and pictures, audio and other evidence. On January 4, she also issued a joint letter advocating Beihang to establish an anti-sexual harassment mechanism on campus. This joint letter was participated by more than 3,000 people. Luo Xixi's real-name report Weibo received more than 3 million views that afternoon. Beihang made an exception and responded on the holiday, claiming to launch an investigation and suspend Chen Xiaowu's work. The Ministry of Education also issued a document stating that it has zero tolerance for sexual harassment and will study and introduce a long-term mechanism for anti-sexual harassment on campus.

Huang Xueqin and Luo Xixi opened the beginning of China's #MeToo movement. After Chen Xiaowu was punished, more incidents of sexual harassment in colleges and universities, in the public welfare circle, and in the media were exposed. At the peak, in July 2018, 23 sexual harassment allegations were exposed in one month. Survivors came out to tell about the sexual violence and the harm they suffered, and at the same time demanded that society respond, urge campuses/workplaces to introduce anti-sexual harassment mechanisms, and improve domestic anti-sexual harassment laws. At that time, more than 8,000 students from 94 universities participated in the activity of writing letters of advocacy to their alma mater, which once formed an anti-sexual harassment trend .

Charlotte, a teacher at a university in Shenzhen and a friend of Huang Xueqin, believes that Huang Xueqin plays a very important role in China's #MeToo movement. "She tells the stories of these women in a language that everyone can understand and resonate with, connecting every lonely individual in #MeToo. Every story she writes is not only the story of the person involved, but also the story of every woman."

Huang Xueqin, however, joked that she was "the tallest among the short ones." Facing sexual harassment, other journalists did not dare to speak out, were unwilling to speak out, and did not want to speak out, so she "accidentally" became one of the iconic figures in the #MeToo movement.

Huang Xueqin was deeply involved in the #MeToo movement, connecting survivors with lawyers, counselors and other social resources to help them defend their rights, and reporting on and monitoring the progress of cases. These were normal jobs, but they quickly made her sensitive. The media she worked for and the platforms she contributed to all sent messages saying "someone is investigating you." Huang Xueqin also began to be frequently interviewed by the police, asking her to stop reporting on sexual harassment and stop "inciting" students. Students in colleges and universities revealed that in a speech, the school leaders defined Huang Xueqin as an "external force" and asked students to stay away from her.

Officials accused her of inciting students to participate in actions and linking to NGOs; censorship deleted most of her articles, and her life story was erased and rewritten bit by bit by the authorities. Now, searching for the name "Huang Xueqin" brings up news of her arrest and sporadic #MeToo reports. The writings she was once proud of and that brought some changes, the most fulfilling time of her life, have all been ruthlessly cleared away by this efficient and powerful censorship machine.

One of her colleagues, Anne, a reporter for a foreign media stationed in China, said that Huang Xueqin's approach in promoting the establishment of anti-sexual harassment mechanisms in Chinese universities was "not confrontational, but cooperative." She told the school how establishing this mechanism would benefit them and wanted to solve the problem of sexual harassment together.

At that time, the establishment of a sexual harassment mechanism in colleges and universities was still a long way off, but Anne said Huang Xueqin was "always optimistic."

Optimism is reflected in life. Xueqin was traveling with her friends one time. The car broke down halfway. In the middle of the night, they had nothing to eat and nowhere to stay. Everyone was depressed when Xueqin suddenly shouted, "Ah, look, the stars are so beautiful tonight!"

If I can’t go out to study, I will continue to record and take action

This optimism continued even after the police began harassing her and her family. September 2019 was the time for Huang Xueqin to study for a master's degree in law at the University of Hong Kong. But before that, Guangdong's national security officers detained her for 24 hours and confiscated her passport to prevent her from studying abroad because she posted an article about the Hong Kong anti-extradition bill movement.

It's not that she wasn't depressed, after all, it wasn't easy to apply for schools and scholarships. But she soon came to her senses and decided that since she couldn't go out to study, she would continue to record and take action. However, the situation continued to deteriorate. On October 17, 2019, Huang Xueqin went to the police station at the request of the National Security Bureau. They had previously claimed that they would return Xueqin's passport, but they didn't expect that this was a trap.

At first, Huang Xueqin was detained in a detention center. At first, she treated her time in the detention center as an anthropological field study. She listened to their stories and wanted to write a book for them. She even thought of the title, "Women's Prison A101." 101 was the cell where she was detained.

Later, I was placed under residential surveillance at a designated location, and life was not so easy. Artist Ai Weiwei was also placed under residential surveillance, and he held an exhibition to restore the life of being under residential surveillance at a designated location. In a place unknown to anyone, I could not see a lawyer or family members, and I was completely cut off from outsiders. In a small space, in addition to irregular interrogations, at least two people stood by my side 24 hours a day, recording all my movements and expressions, how many times I stretched, how many bites of food I ate, how many glasses of water I drank, how I went to the toilet, how I took a shower, and how I slept, every day.

In such a privacy-less and oppressive environment, Xueqin also sympathized with the guards, who had to make sure her stool was soft or hard after she went to the toilet, and record the number of times she turned over when she was asleep. With no one to talk to, she could only walk in the small room, letting her thoughts drift far away. She tried to imagine what each of the 5,000 roses in the rose garden that the little prince later encountered looked like, and how they were different from the one the little prince loved.

This kind of romantic and optimistic mood seems to be rare in people who have experienced hardships in life. Huang Xueqin said that the reason she could calmly accept her own situation was because as a journalist, she had read, seen, heard and written about too many other people's experiences: Lin Zhao, who would rather die than surrender, Chen Yinke, who was independent in spirit, and those young people who ran to the square but could not come back.

This comforted Huang Xueqin and gave her strength. She also analyzed that this might be a form of escape. In fact, since 2018, she has occasionally fallen into a state of "speechlessness". For a period of time, she would not want to say anything, and would be powerless to do anything, shrouded in a huge sense of nothingness and despair.

Perhaps 2019 was a chance to take a breather. Before entering school, Huang Xueqin was a visiting scholar at the University of Hong Kong. No one expected that the anti-extradition bill movement would break out at this time.

“If you’ve experienced it yourself, you can’t pretend to be ignorant”

On June 9, in order to oppose the amendment of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, more than one million Hong Kong people took to the streets and expressed their opposition in a peaceful march. At the historical scene of the social movement, Huang Xueqin joined the initial march with the mentality of "voicing, participating, witnessing and recording".

She followed the crowd and posted photos and videos of the scene on her WeChat Moments, but found that the relevant content was constantly blocked and deleted. The Hong Kong movement has become the most sensitive topic. In mainland China, all information about the anti-extradition bill movement will be censored. The authorities have started a propaganda machine, claiming that the protesters "colluded with foreign forces" and used violence to oppose the "one country, two systems" principle, and are "Hong Kong independence" and "thugs."

Huang Xueqin saw at the scene how the "thugs" in the official narrative participated in the march in an orderly manner, how they politely gave way to each other, and how they expressed themselves in a peaceful and rational way; she also saw the public opinion split caused by the official propaganda stigmatizing and demonizing the movement, and she understood the importance of true records. Since she couldn't send the video and photos, she posted the text "One in seven Hong Kong people took to the streets to oppose the evil law." When her friends saw it and asked her "What happened in Hong Kong? What evil law are you opposing? Why are you opposing it?", she patiently explained them one by one.

Later, all traces of the protest on Weibo and WeChat were erased, her own account was banned, and the official media only allowed one conclusion: "rioters are disrupting Hong Kong." She felt that this movement would be erased and rewritten by the state apparatus like the Tiananmen Square movement in Beijing 30 years ago. A sense of mission and responsibility surged up in her. She had to take on the responsibility of a reporter, record the fragments of history, and do her best to restore the real voices of the scene. With such a mood, she wrote the article "Record of My "Anti-Extradition" Parade" under her real name. It was this article that directly put her in jail.

Late in the night of the second day after the article was published, the police went to her home in Guangzhou to find her family and asked Huang Xueqin to "shut up." Later, Huang Xueqin was arrested that night when she returned to her home in mainland China.

According to her colleague Anne, "She did nothing except fulfilling her duties as a journalist to report on the Hong Kong anti-extradition movement."

Huang Xueqin considered the consequences and after careful consideration, she felt that she could not help but record it. To her, it was a dereliction of duty for journalists, especially those present. As the article "Recording My Anti-Extradition Parade" said at the end, "Having personally experienced and witnessed it, I cannot pretend to be ignorant, cannot give up recording, and cannot sit and wait for death. The darkness is endless, and the only remaining trace of truth and light must not be given up."

"One second of darkness will not make a person blind" - it was these words that gave Huang Xueqin strength during the dark time of imprisonment.

The state's violent organs usually treat dissidents and activists with an "iron fist" and violence, followed by long periods of detention, education, and transformation. For the prisoners, the initial intimidation and threats gradually become ineffective, and the subsequent enemies become a long, endless time.

Huang Xueqin recalled countless times the books she had read, the places she had been to, and the people she had met, to keep her mind moving. Facing long-term transformation education, she imagined herself as a female spy. Female spies are not like heroines, who are always passionate and enthusiastic. In that kind of environment, responding with their true colors will quickly be exhausted. Female spies know how to mediate. They are smart and cunning. While protecting themselves, they will not forget their mission.

But Huang Xueqin is very wary of this "imagining oneself as a female spy" approach, because this achieves the purpose of transformational education: making sincere people silent, acting according to circumstances, and being two-faced. She hates this approach, and she likes to sit on the grass and talk with people around her. Honesty and truthfulness are very important to her.

Xiaobei, who participated in supporting Huang Xueqin in 2020, felt that she was a very principled person when they first met. At that time, they were divided into groups to play a game. The rule was that if each group chose the same number, they would get extra points. If one group chose a different number from the other groups, the group that chose the different number would get extra points, and the other groups that chose the same number would lose points. Groups could talk to each other and persuade each other through negotiation or deception. The group that got the highest score in the end would win.

A game of intrigue and deception began. Some groups chose to win over and deceive in order to win. But Huang Xueqin insisted that everyone must win together and establish a partnership of mutual trust, and not be manipulated by the rules of the game. Xiaobei said that Xueqin was very excited at the time and even cried at the end.

For Huang Xueqin, staying sensitive and aware of pain and anger is the only way to be a better journalist in this absurd era.

“There is no journalist who does not speak out.”

After being released on bail, Huang Xueqin sometimes had nightmares. Once she dreamed that she was imprisoned again. In the dream, there was a tyrant who was furious for some reason and wanted to boil the prisoners to eat, but he thought the prisoners were too lowly, so he boiled a minister. When he ate his finger, he found a ring left on it. The tyrant was furious and wanted to continue eating people. Xueqin was shocked and angry in the dream. She wanted to go out and denounce the tyrant, but her family covered her mouth and said, "It's not you who is being eaten. Don't worry about it. Don't shout." Xueqin woke up in shock. She thought of the disappeared citizen journalists Zhang Zhan, Chen Qiushi, and Li Zehua.

She constantly reminds herself not to fall into self-admiration. Compared to many people, her life has not been ruined, she has not suffered physical torture, she has not suffered too much trauma, she has both a cat and a dog, and she has time to go out for a drink with friends. This is already a great fortune. She is still willing to focus on observing and recording this absurd era, and the people struggling in it.

Of course, the jail time left its mark on her. Police harassment and surveillance continued, she could not leave Guangzhou, and she was afraid of the barking of her dog, which would bark non-stop every time the national security officers made a surprise visit.

Although she was asked not to talk about her experience in prison publicly, a few months after being released on bail, Huang Xueqin was finally able to pick up a pen and write a diary, which she shared with a few friends. According to her friends, her diary clearly recorded how the national security officers stimulated her, monitored her, and obstructed her normal work. Through recording, Xueqin gradually regained her strength.

"What journalist doesn't speak out?" This is the title of an article she wrote. She insisted on reporting and recording, but could only publish articles anonymously. She interviewed and wrote about the female protester Li Qiaochu , who won the 2021 SOPA "Excellent Reporting on Women's Issues" Gold Award. But she didn't expect that she would once again step into a similar fate as them.

At the end of the interview, I asked her, what is your ideal society like?

She said that it is a time of "demons dancing wildly" and everyone can grow naturally and freely. Some people become monsters, some become fighters. It should be like a herb garden with all kinds of flowers blooming.

I asked, what is your role in this?

She said without hesitation, "I am the recorder. I will use my pen and my camera to record how each flower grows, blooms, and withers." Then she added, "Of course, I also want to bloom."

Except for Huang Xueqin, all interviewees are pseudonyms.