For Leaking Information On Xi Jinping's Daughter

Daddy Xi Is Not Happy

Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell.

In China, netizens can be  arrested for simply browsing  

China's Dirty Web—basically,  the Dark Web for doxing sites.

Like many young internet users, netizens in China  have formed subcultures on certain websites.  

Some of these websites are hosted  on foreign servers outside of China,  

so authorities can't shut them down as easily.

Some of these websites function  as wiki database sites—that is,  

users can contribute information on the site.

The Chinese Communist Party calls these  wikis the “Esu Circle”. Esu means Vulgar. 

One of the Esu Circle websites is Zhina Wiki. And  just look at this homepage. Now that's vulgar.

It started as a place where young netizens could  share memes and throw shade at public figures like  

celebrities and athletes. But in 2019, users  on Zhina Wiki shared personal information  

about Xi Jinping's relatives: his brother-in-law  Deng Jiagui, and his daughter Xi Mingze.

That leaked information included Date  of Birth, Household Registration number,  

and for Xi Mingze, her new name.  

She allegedly had her name changed after getting  her Bachelor's Degree from Harvard University.

The only official photo of Xi Mingze is  this Xinhua propaganda photo from the 90s.  

And it's not really a photo of her. It's  a photo of how great her dad is. Daddy Xi!

But that little girl  

is now 28. And very few people actually  know what she looks like as an adult.

Occasionally, alleged photos  of her have been leaked.

This Daily Mail article from  8 years ago shows this photo,  

but without citing a source.  It's most likely not her. 

There's also this photo, from  thefamouspeople.com—also not a reliable source. 

There's also this photo from Getty  Images, labeled as Xi Mingze, but  

not confirmed that it's the same Xi  Mingze who's the daughter of Xi Jinping.

And obviously none of these  photos are the same person. 

And this latest leak from the Zhina Wiki  website is yet another unconfirmed photo.

Whether accurate or not, Daddy Xi is not pleased. 

And in the typical communist style, the  response to the leaked photo is pretty extra.  

The Ministry of Public Security established  a special task force. In the end they jailed  

24 netizens for the information leak.

Which is crazy. When can you get  24 people to cooperate on anything?

The most severe sentence was given  to 21-year-old computer prodigy  

Niu Tengyu, who had made around 200 entries  online. He was deemed the primary offender.

Niu Tengyu was sentenced to 8 years in prison for  “picking quarrels and provoking disturbances,”  

5 years in prison for “infringing on citizens'  personal information,” and 2 years for “illegal  

business operation.” His combined sentence is  15 years in prison, and the court decided to  

implement a 14-year sentence with a 130,000  RMB fine—which is about 20,000 US dollars.

14 years in prison seems excessive for  leaking a photo and some information—and  

it wasn't even embarrassing information.

Just imagine someone leaking information  about the US president's embarrassing child.

Twitter might freeze your account.

But you won't go to prison.

Even Donald Trump eventually stopped  hiding his embarrassing daughter.

And Xi Mingze is by all accounts well behaved  and low key. So what's such a big deal that  

the people who allegedly leaked her  information are going to prison? 

Well, it's hard to say. But the prison  sentence isn't even the worst part.  

I'll explain after the break.

Welcome back.

Niu Tengyu is the Chinese netizen who  was sentenced to 14 years in prison  

for allegedly leaking this photo and information  about Xi Jinping's daughter, Xi Mingze.

Visiting “Esu Circle” websites has not been  punished by the judicial system before.  

But this case is different because  it involves Xi Jinping's family.  

And that's also why Chinese lawyers  are reluctant to represent Niu Tengyu.

This handwritten letter from Niu Tengyu was  released by an anonymous friend or colleague. It's  

about how the authorities tortured him to confess.  

It says: “Around January 2020, I was forced to  write 'confessions' on a few hundred pages of  

A4 paper. I wrote tens of thousands of words. All  of the content I wrote was required by the police,  

and I was forced to make up and fabricate things  that are non-existent, deliberate fabrications  

according to their demands. I had to write enough  pages within a given timeframe following the  

titles and outlines they demanded. When failing  to do so, I was allowed to eat nothing but rice,  

I was deprived of sleep, and I was hung up and  beaten. Between December 10, 2019, and January 20,  

2020, I slept less than 30 hours in  total, and I was crippled by beating.  

I'm hereby stating that all these  documents were fabrications under duress,  

and they do not represent my own  opinion, and much of them are not true.”

According to Niu's mother, the police tortured him  

to get him to confess to being  the ringleader behind the leak.

She also said that one of Niu's  arms has been permanently injured  

and he was beaten until he was  unconscious several times.  

I know what you're thinking: That's  an excessive amount of torture.  

But remember, he's a dangerous terrorist. He  posted a photo on the internet. Allegedly.

And I say allegedly because it might  not have been Niu Tengyu at all.

The founder of one of the Esu Circle websites  has testified that Niu Tengyu wasn't actually  

involved in the information  leak, but is just a scapegoat.

After all, there's no way to verify  that Niu Tengyu was the one who found  

Xi Mingze's information in the first place.  According to Xiao Yanrui, who started several  

of the Esu Circle websites, the data may have  been shared online by...corrupt police officers.

Xiao says the administrators of the Zhina  Wiki website, where the information was  

actually leaked, are based overseas. So the  authorities chose to blame Niu Tengyu instead.  

Even though Niu was not posting on Zhina Wiki.  He was posting on a different website, Esu Wiki. 

And according to Xiao, the information about  

Xi Jinping's relatives was  not even posted on Esu Wiki.

Xiao also said that Niu had traveled with him  to Hong Kong to see the protests back in 2019. 

So...this could have been about punishing  him for visiting the Hong Kong protests,  

while at the same time covering  up police behavior? Hmmm.

And now it's time for me to answer a question from  a viewer who supports China Uncensored on Patreon.

Bruce Johnson asks: Chris, what's your general impression of the  

post Trump/mid pandemic world as it relates  to China's future? It seems between Trump  

and the CCP's handling of the Coronavirus, the  cat is out of the bag.  How much will all this  

impact China's trajectory of becoming a  true super power and rival of the US? 

Well, Bruce: The good news is that through the  pandemic, a lot of people are waking up to the  

problems with the Chinese Communist Party—from  their initial cover up that caused the spread,  

to the hostile mask diplomacy, to  the ineffective Chinese vaccines.  

Even some governments are getting tougher  on the CCP, like the UK and Australia.

In terms of post-Trump, it's hard to say. We've  only had a few weeks of post-Trump, and it's not  

yet clear what the Biden administration is going  to do on China. They've said some tough things,  

they've said some cooperative things. But  ultimately it'll be actions that count.

But the best way to prevent the  CCP from being a true super power  

is simple: Stop giving them money. That's it.  Stop investing in their bonds. Stop buying their  

products. Stop watching their stupid panda videos.  And if we all do that, the CCP will not survive.

Thanks for your question, Bruce.

Be like Bruce and join us on Patreon. Go to  Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored to learn more.

Once again, I'm Chris Chappell.  Thanks for watching China Uncensored.