Director Chen Pinlin of the White Paper Movement documentary sentenced to three and a half years

A Chinese director was arrested for filming a documentary at the end of 2022 on the nationwide protests against the extreme COVID-19 epidemic control measures imposed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After over a year of detention, the CCP authorities sentenced him to three and a half years in prison on charges of “provoking trouble.”

The director, 33-year-old Chen Pinlin, was convicted on Monday (January 6) by the Baoshan Court in Shanghai after a three-hour closed-door trial. “Provoking trouble” is a common charge used by the CCP authorities to suppress dissidents, lawyers, and journalists.

Chen Pinlin’s documentary “Urumqi Middle Road” captured the reality of the large-scale public protests that erupted in Urumqi Middle Road in Shanghai in 2022.

The massive protest was considered the largest public resistance in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, posing an unprecedented challenge to CCP leader Xi Jinping.

In November 2022, a deadly apartment fire occurred in Urumqi, Xinjiang, due to the CCP’s extreme epidemic control measures obstructing firefighting efforts, resulting in severe casualties. Despite CCP’s denials, it sparked anger among the people nationwide.

After nearly three years of extreme lockdown policies, mandatory testing, and economic difficulties, public grievances boiled over, leading to widespread protests and becoming a catalyst for open opposition against the CCP.

On the evening of November 26, 2022, demonstrations erupted on Urumqi Middle Road in Shanghai, with people holding up white papers in opposition to the CCP’s epidemic controls. The movement spread nationwide, culminating in the “White Paper Movement,” where students protested through various forms such as gatherings, speeches, singing, slogans, and displaying white papers to resist CCP tyranny.

In Shanghai, protesters even demanded Xi Jinping’s resignation – an unimaginable act under CCP’s authoritarian rule.

At the scene, Chen Pinlin and a female friend filmed numerous videos. A year later, in September 2023, he began producing the documentary “Urumqi Middle Road,” which was uploaded to YouTube on the first anniversary of the “White Paper Movement.”

A few days later, Chen Pinlin was arrested in Shanghai’s Baoshan district.

The “White Paper Movement” protests were eventually suppressed by the CCP authorities, who later lifted the epidemic control measures, without acknowledging the impact of the protests in any public statement.

Chen Pinlin’s documentary, titled “Urumqi Middle Road” in Chinese after the street name where the protests took place in Shanghai, and “Not the Foreign Force” in English, has a duration of 1 hour and 17 minutes.

Chen Pinlin expressed his hope to refute the CCP’s attempt to attribute the protests to “foreign forces” through the documentary.

In an article published with the documentary, he, like many young participants in the protests, expressed that his involvement on the streets of Shanghai on November 26, 2022, was his first time expressing political demands in China.

He stated, “Why is it that every time internal conflicts arise in China, foreign forces are always blamed? The answer is clear to everyone. The more the government misleads, forgets, and censors, the more we must speak up, remind, and remember.”

Chen Pinlin wrote, “Only by remembering the ugliness can we pursue the light. I also hope that one day China can embrace its own light and future.”

International human rights organizations have been calling for his release since his arrest.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) stated in a March statement last year, “Chen Pinlin’s actions were entirely in the public interest. He documented this historic protest against governmental abuse of power and should not have been arrested. We urge democratic countries to exert more pressure on the Chinese regime to ensure the withdrawal of all charges against Chen.”