According to information received by the “Yesterday” channel, “Sitong Bridge Hero” Peng Lifa has been sentenced to nine years in prison by a Chinese Communist Party court on multiple charges, including “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and “arson,” after being secretly detained for over two years. It is reported that Peng Lifa was transferred to prison two months ago to begin serving his sentence. However, the outside world had previously been unable to confirm his safety or legal status.
Who is Peng Lifa?
Peng Lifa, also known online as “Peng Zaizhou,” was born in 1974 in Tailai, Heilongjiang Province. He was an ordinary Chinese citizen, but on October 13, 2022, he single-handedly staged a protest on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge, becoming a globally recognized symbol of dissent.
On the eve of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress, Peng Lifa publicly hung two huge protest banners on Sitong Bridge in Beijing’s Haidian District. The banners directly targeted political grievances and read:
- We want food not Covid testing! We want freedom not lockdowns! We want dignity not lies! We want reform not the Cultural Revolution! We want to vote not a leader! We are citizens not slaves!”
- “Go on strikes, depose the traitorous dictator Xi Jinping.”
In an era with the backdrop of stringent “zero-COVID” lockdowns and heightened censorship in China, Peng’s solo protest shocked the society. Although the scene was quickly blocked off and cleared, it left a lasting impact.
The Far-Reaching Impact of the Sitong Bridge Incident
Peng Lifa’s protest was not entirely erased. Within hours, photos and messages about the incident spread rapidly across social media inside and outside of China, sparking widespread resonance. It was widely seen as the trigger for the “White Paper Revolution.”
Beginning in November 2022, large-scale protests against the zero-COVID policy broke out across many regions in mainland China. The movement spread from universities to factories and even to overseas Chinese communities. In China’s increasingly repressive political environment, this wave of protest was extremely rare, showing how Peng Lifa’s actions ignited long-suppressed public grievances.
Following his arrest on the day of the Sitong Bridge protest, Peng Lifa remained in a state of enforced disappearance. The outside world had no knowledge of his legal or physical health status, prompting concern from the international community. Numerous human rights organizations repeatedly called on the Chinese government to disclose Peng’s whereabouts and grant him a fair trial. The authorities remained silent until recent revelations of his sentencing and imprisonment.
Peng Lifa’s sentencing once again underscores China’s harsh crackdown on dissent and continues to draw public attention to his condition and treatment in prison.
(China Aid Association)
