Chinese Activist Arrested For Posting Pictures of Hong Kong's Occupy Central

Wang Long, a 26-year-old Chinese activist, was arrested in Shenzhen because he posted pictures of Hong Kong's Occupy Central on Chinese media. He was detained for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. At least 3 people have been so far detained on the mainland because they posted photos of the protests in Hong Kong.

Wang Long had already hit the headlines earlier this month when he sued China Unicom, a state-owned telecom provider, for denying access to Google websites and services.

After the Occupy Central campaign was launched by Benny Tai on September 28, thousands of people have joined the demonstrations. The images of the protests have been shared by millions of people all over the world, but not in mainland China, where censorship has been at work to prevent the Chinese people from seeing what is really happening in Hong Kong.

(source: methodshop on Flickr)

The Great Firewall of China, the government's internet censorship apparatus, has been running at full speed. On Sunday, mainland China's Instagram was blocked. Comments and photos regarding Occupy Central have been deleted by internet censors. Despite the government's effort, however, the Great Firewall hasn't been able to insulate mainland China completely from the outside.

While thousands of Hong Kong citizens protest and demand democratic reforms, today, October 1, the Communist leadership celebrates the 65th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The mainland's media remain silent about the Hong Kong protests and propagate the official principle of "one country, two systems" as the only possible road to stability and prosperity for Hong Kong.

Wang Long, in Shenzhen, arrested for posting Hong Kong protest photos on Weibo. http://t.co/0T4xJISgXO @ChuBailiang pic.twitter.com/PHQZIvR9DW

— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) September 30, 2014

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