Concerns Grow as Protester Who Unfurled Pro-Democracy Banners in China Goes Missing

‘We decided to disclose his identity in hopes that his bravery will not be forgotten and that more people could rally behind him,’ said a human rights activist.

Banners calling for China's democracy unfurled in Chengdu, China, on April 15, 2025. Screenshot of YesterdayBigcat’s Twitter account via The Epoch Times

A Chinese man appears to have been forcefully disappeared after videos and photos circulated of a rare protest condemning the Communist rule in China, rights advocates said.

A brief video and images that surfaced on the overseas social media platform X on late April 14 showed three unfurled banners in Chengdu, a city in southern China. The banners took aim directly at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“The people do not need a political party with unrestrained power,” one of the banners read. Phrases from another handwritten banner calling for political reform. The third included a demand for democracy in China, rather than having someone who “gives the direction,” a phrase typically reserved by state media for the CCP’s head, particularly the current head, Xi Jinping.

The protester who hung the banners in Chengdu was identified as Mei Shilin, a 27-year-old man living in the provincial capital of Sichuan, according to activists in touch with him.

Du Wen, who received the photos of Mei’s identity card alongside protest photos on April 14, told The Epoch Times that he had lost contact with Mei the next day.

Growing concerns for Mei’s safety prompted Du to make his identity public. Du said the local authorities may have taken Mei into custody.

Drawing from his experience supporting Chinese dissidents, Du said that he believes global attention could be the only way to ensure Mei’s safety and prevent “inhuman torture” that might be inflicted upon him.

He referred to the regime’s notorious record of silencing critics, including sending dissidents to psychiatric hospitals and subjecting prisoners of conscience to abuse and torture.

Du served as a chief legal adviser to Inner Mongolia’s local authorities before being imprisoned for nearly 13 years for alleged bribery, a conviction he said was unjust. After fleeing to Belgium in late 2023, Du has spoken out about the horrors he witnessed in Chinese jails.

Du’s account aligned with information provided by a Chinese X user, known by the nickname “Yesterday,” who tracks protests inside China. Images of such a public act of defiance are often quickly scrubbed from Chinese social media platforms.

The blogger, speaking anonymously for safety reasons, told The Epoch Times that while efforts to reach Mei are ongoing, it is nearly certain that he has been arrested.

“We decided to disclose his identity in hopes that his bravery will not be forgotten and that more people could rally behind him,” the blogger said.

Defiance in Communist China

Public expressions of criticism toward the Communist rule are rare within China, where the CCP has already established the world’s largest surveillance system, employing facial recognition and AI technologies to enhance its monitoring capabilities.

Nevertheless, as the regime has tightened its grip over the past few years, sporadic acts of defiance have emerged. Even in Beijing, the nation’s political heart, known for its particularly suffocating security, instances of resistance occasionally surface.

In October 2022, banners criticizing Xi by name and denouncing the country’s strict COVID-19 control measures were unfurled by a lone protester over a bridge in Beijing.

Banners hang from Sitong Bridge in Beijing on Oct. 13, 2022. Dissident Peng Lifa unfurled the banners to protest against China’s draconian “zero-COVID” policy and call for an end to the authoritarian regime. Screenshot of Fangshimin’s Twitter account via The Epoch Times

The one-man protest took place in broad daylight amid heightened security leading up to the 20th Party Congress, where Xi was poised to secure an unprecedented third term.

Some media outlets described the event as the first time Beijing has seen banners targeting the CCP since the 1989 protests, which the regime crushed with tanks and troops.

Chinese censors acted swiftly to suppress the spread of related information. Videos and photos of the protest were quickly removed from major social media platforms, and mentions of the event were also restricted on Weibo, China’s equivalent of X. In the days that followed, searches for vaguely related phrases, like “courage,” “bridge,” and “Beijing,” were temporarily blocked on Weibo, indicating the significant attention that the protest had garnered behind the Great Firewall.

The protester was arrested by police at the scene and was later identified by overseas activists as Peng Lifa, a 48-year-old man residing in the Chinese capital.

Within a month of this incident, mass protests erupted across the nation.

From the capital Beijing to the remote county of Korla, Chinese citizens took to the streets over the final weekend of November 2023, calling for an end to the strict zero-COVID curbs and demanding freedom. In Shanghai, residents voiced their anger toward the CCP and its leader, demanding that they step down.

Protesters hold up a white piece of paper against censorship as they march during a protest against China's strict zero-COVID policy in Beijing on Nov. 27, 2022. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

In December 2022, the CCP lifted its nearly three-year-old zero-COVID policy, allowing infected individuals to isolate at home instead of being taken to quarantine camps and reducing testing requirements for domestic travelers.

To honor Peng’s courage, then-U.S. House China Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023.

In a recent YouTube video, Du called on more people to voice support for protesters like Peng and Mei, saying what dictators fear most is the truth.

“These prisoners of conscience are like seeds buried in the ground. Their arrest and imprisonment are not the end, but the beginning of their blossoming and bearing fruit,” Du said in the video.

“The CCP can confine the body, but it cannot cage the truth,” he said.

Gu Xiaohua contributed to this report.