‘Ink girl’ who defaced Xi Jinping poster reappears, says she’s “on the verge of collapse” under overbearing restrictions, surveillance
DHARAMSALA, 2 Dec: A Chinese activist, popularly known as ‘Ink Girl’ for defacing a poster of Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2018 has reappeared in a video declaring that she’s on “the verge of breaking down” under overbearing restrictions and surveillance that the Chinese government has subjected her to.
Dong Yaoqiong, says in a video she posted on her Twitter handle on Monday that she’s “on the verge of collapse” because of the restrictions she has been placed under, reports the scmp.com.
The 31-year-old Chinese activist adds in the since-deleted tweet that the authorities have made her work at a local government office after being released from the psychiatric facility with her movements strictly restricted.
“I have decided to tweet now because I no longer fear them. If they lock me in an institution again, it’s fine – I’ll take being locked up for life. However, I must fight for my own freedom, my freedom to work, my freedom to meet friends. I have lost all my freedoms, they’re restricted,” the report quoted her as saying in the video.
While her parents have stated in the report that Dong was twice admitted to a psychiatric facility against her will since the incident, she says in the video that she decided to speak up on Twitter because she no longer fears the authorities, “even if they lock me up again in hospital … even if that means being locked up forever.”
“They don’t threaten or terrorise [me] but they are essentially stripping me of all human contact, including with my father. I don’t want to live like this any more. It’s either do or die – I can no longer carry on under such stressful surveillance and I’m on the verge of collapse.”
Chinese activists and Twitter users responded to the development with a flurry of messages and tweets expressing support and concern for her.
“Dong is a classical example of the consequences of public resistance. She is a rare rebel,” Hunan-based activist Ou Biaofeng has said.
The video clip, widely shared on Twitter drew comments such as; A psychiatric facility for ink on a poster???, What a brave lady! I thought they killed her… among others.
Earlier in 2015, a 42-year-old Chinese man was sentenced to 14 months in jail for hurling a bottle of ink at the portrait of Mao Zedong looking out over Tiananmen Square
