Advertisement
Advertisement
LIFE
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Protesters mobilised through WeChat gather outside New York's City Hall in support of indicted policeman Peter Liang. Photo: Rong Xiaoqing

WeChat becomes protest tool for Chinese in New York

Rong Xiaoqing in New York

LIFE

Messaging app WeChat is huge in the Chinese-speaking world, its 500 million active monthly users paying bills, posting news and chatting with friends via the platform.

In New York - the city with the largest Chinese population outside Asia - another activity can be added to that glorious list: organising a political protest.

On March 8, about 3,000 mostly Chinese protesters congregated outside City Hall. They were there for Peter Liang, a 27-year-old Chinese-American cop who shot dead an innocent black man, Akai Gurley, when his gun discharged accidentally during a patrol last year.

When a grand jury indicted him just before the Lunar New Year, fury had erupted within parts of the Chinese community. Liang, some believed, had been made a scapegoat amid growing racial tensions in the United States, where two policemen were awaiting high-profile grand-jury decisions on charges relating to the deaths of two unarmed black men.

A New York police officer, in charge of maintaining order on that Sunday afternoon, said that in his 20 years on the job, he had never seen so many Chinese standing together on the street.

Representatives of the dozen or so organisations involved all denied having been the chief instigator or coordinator of the event. Credit, they said, should be handed to WeChat.

"I helped to start a WeChat group for the purpose of helping officer Liang to get justice two weeks ago. And now we've got more than 300 people in it," said Yiping Wu, who works in the financial industry.

Another woman added: "There are at least five groups on WeChat that I know of to help Liang. Each of them has a few hundred people."

And it wasn't just WeChat groups dedicated to Liang that provided support.

Taxi driver Alex Wang belongs to a WeChat group about nightlife in New York.

"Our group has a few hundred members, from artists to blue-collar workers. The message of today's activity was widely spread among us, too. That's why I am here," he said.

It was not the first time WeChat had helped to mobilise a protest. During Hong Kong's "umbrella movement" last year, students coordinated meetings and shared photos and news via the app. The Chinese authorities were not impressed.

On the mainland, WeChat prevented users from viewing images posted to the app's "moments" page by Hong Kong users, and holders of public accounts - often celebrities with huge followings - were blocked from posting items containing words such as "Hong Kong", "democracy" and "protest".

But outside of the mainland's internet space, the app is harder for Beijing to control and censor.

No doubt, WeChat's role in the New York protest will be noted with interest, and suspicion.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: The power of WeChat
Post