Zhao Yunting, a Shanghai native, enjoys his new-found freedom in Finland, where he is not afraid to expose the Chinese regime’s atrocities. His online posts criticizing Beijing and its zero-COVID policy got him imprisoned at the age of 21.
In a recent interview with the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times, Zhao talked about being persecuted by Chinese authorities.
He said, “It is my ideal to stand up and openly oppose the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
Convicted for Expressing Opinion
Like most Chinese teenagers, Zhao spent much time surfing the internet, which taught him to bypass the “Great Firewall” and access uncensored information from overseas.
In the early morning of Dec. 13, 2021, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, he shared his thoughts on Chinese social media Weibo about the opaque Chinese pandemic data, inadequate medical treatment and assistance from Beijing, and lack of human rights in China.
Three hours later, the police arrested him.
“I was shocked how fast they acted; I was horrified because the internet taught me how brutal the CCP could get,” Zhao said.
At the police station, he was first locked inside an iron cage and interrogated, and then he was brought to a storage room, where he was beaten and harassed.
Zhao was detained for allegedly “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge that the CCP uses to target dissidents and those who don’t toe the Party line.
“I did not violate any laws but exercised my rights entitled by the Constitution,” he told the police.
Zhao was imprisoned for a month in Jiading District Detention Center, with more than 20 inmates in a cell. He did not receive any medical assistance when he was ill. And there was no hot water, even though it was a cold winter.
The police monitored Zhao after he was released in 2022. He was warned not to post any comments critical of the CCP.
“It was very disgusting,” he said, “I only hoped for a free and a just, democratic society.”
Despair Over Extreme Measures
The extreme COVID-19 lockdown was the last straw that drove Zhao to flee China.
When Shanghai started the lockdown at the end of March last year, many people had a difficult time due to food shortages and limited medical assistance.
Two months later, news of people committing suicide spread in the city.
COVID-19 testing in a locked-down neighborhood in Shanghai, China, on March 17, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
During the lockdown, the community workers would call on all residents to take COVID-19 tests.
“They forced the daily nucleic acid tests. It was meaningless,” he told The Epoch Times.
Zhao believed doing the tests would increase the chance of cross-infection, so he refused to take the test. But he said the police threatened and coerced him.
Zhao had nowhere to hide as the authorities monitored residents through a health QR code on their cell phones linked to personal IDs and the police station.
The oppression and harassment from the police made him leave China. In March, he applied for asylum in Finland.
Since then, he has frequently visited the Chinese Embassy in Helsinki to protest against the CCP’s tyranny.
“To speak out against the CCP is my pleasure,” he said.
Zhao is proud to be able to speak up for those who are still trapped and oppressed in China.
He said he gained a clear understanding of the CCP’s nature after learning about the many cases of abuse it concealed over the years, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the persecution of dissidents and Falun Gong adherents, the forced property demolitions, and the live organ harvesting among prisoners of conscience.
Zhao praised The Epoch Times and its sister media outlet NTD for reporting the truth about the CCP. “I trust them,” he said.
Hong Ning contributed to this report.