The director of a Chinese anti-COVID protest film has been sentenced to prison, a former lawyer told Reuters

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 in 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 the government’s efforts to censor criticism of the zero-sum fight against COVID policy.

The national protests were the largest since the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989 and unprecedented since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

A judge sentenced Chen Pinlin, 33, to prison in a closed-door trial on Monday for “inciting strife and causing trouble,” Daniel Fang, who handled Chen’s case before he left China last year, told Reuters. He quoted people familiar with the case.

Chen, who pleaded guilty, plans to appeal the sentence, Fang People quoted him as saying.

The Baoshan District People’s Court in Shanghai did not respond to a request for comment.

“Stirring quarrels and stirring up trouble” is a charge commonly used by the Chinese government against dissidents and human rights activists. A maximum prison sentence of five years is foreseen.

“Documentary filmmaker Chen Pinlin was only serving the public interest by documenting a historic episode of anti-censorship protests,” said Aleksandra Bielakowska, head of advocacy 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 123 other journalists and press freedom defenders currently detained in the country.”

MOVIE

Chen’s 77-minute film titled “Urumqi Road” was uploaded to YouTube in late 2023 under his pseudonym “Plato”.

It consists of footage taken by Chen in Shanghai, as well as video clips posted by netizens that were quickly deleted from Chinese social media.

He was detained by the Shanghai police at the end of November 2023, and officially arrested in January last year, according to Amnesty International.

Although police quickly quelled the protests, they helped hasten the end of a three-year period of some of the world’s strictest pandemic restrictions.

Throughout the pandemic, China said its strict measures against COVID were necessary to save lives and ensure people’s health, before abruptly lifting them at the end of 2022.

The protests have mostly focused on restrictions due to COVID, but some protesters in Beijing have also demanded freedom of speech and democracy.

Those who participated in the protests against the White Paper say that after China’s reopening from COVID, the Chinese government continued to suppress public efforts to mourn the victims of the pandemic and commemorate demonstrations.

At the time, police questioned and briefly detained dozens of participants, while several women were jailed for four months in Beijing, according to rights groups, protesters and friends of those affected.

Human rights activists and Chinese communities continue to screen Chen’s film outside of China.