Two years after Peng Lifa’s courageous one-man protest on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge against Xi Jinping and the CCP’s autocratic rule, his whereabouts are still unknown, although it is widely presumed that he remains under detention. During his October 13, 2022 protest, Peng shouted slogans through a megaphone and hung two banners from Sitong Bridge that read: “We want food, not COVID tests; reform, not Cultural Revolution. We want freedom, not lockdowns; elections, not rulers. We want dignity, not lies. Be citizens, not slaves;” and “Boycott classes. Boycott work. Depose the traitorous despot Xi Jinping.” He was promptly detained by police and has not been seen in public since.
Chinese Human Rights Defenders and other human rights groups have expressed concerns that during Peng’s long and secretive detention, he has been deprived of due process and his right to an attorney, and is at risk of being tortured to extract a confession. There have also been reports of Peng’s family members, including his wife and two young daughters, being placed under detention or surveillance, having their freedom of movement and association restricted, and being forbidden from speaking to journalists or even holding family gatherings at holidays.
This weekend, on the second anniversary of the protest and Peng’s detention, many human rights groups and supporters issued calls for his immediate release.
A statement from Human Rights Watch urged Chinese authorities to release Peng, who some have nicknamed “Bridge Man,” and noted that his lengthy two-year detention constitutes an extralegal “enforced disappearance”:
The authorities have not released information about the protester’s identity, though many in China believe that his name is Peng Lifa (彭立发, also known as Peng Zaizhou [彭载舟]), age 50. There are also unverified reports that some of his family members may have been put under house arrest.
“The Chinese government may have taken away the ‘Bridge Man,’ but his arrest ignited widespread support for a free and democratic China,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. “Two years since Peng Lifa was taken into police custody and forcibly disappeared, his message continues to resonate.”
[…] Peng’s protest was rare in a country where police closely monitor all public spaces and dissidents. Control was especially tight in the capital ahead of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress at the time of the protest. While authorities quickly censored all news about it, Peng’s messages nonetheless spread. [Source]
Despite intense online censorship of the protest at the time, Peng’s message still managed to resonate across China and the world, inspiring a global campaign of protest art and precipitating the November 2022 “White-Paper protests” in which tens of thousands of Chinese citizens—many of them shouting Peng’s slogans—took to the streets to demand an end to political repression and draconian “zero-COVID” policies.
Peng Lifa, also known by his online name Peng Zaizhou, has received numerous accolades, including the 2023 Cao Shunli Memorial Award for Human Rights Defenders. CDT editors chose Peng Lifa and the White-Paper protesters (also known as the “A4” protesters) as 2022’s People of the Year. This weekend, Peng’s supporters marked the second anniversary of his detention with online tributes and educational events, offline demonstrations, new and republished essays, artwork, and more:
