Hardball in Hong Kong
The forced closure of Hong Kong's pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily,[1] published by Jimmy Lai, has led to a crisis in the Chinese Wikipedia (zh.WP) editing community, according to two articles published in the Hong Kong Free Press. HKFP reports that several pro-Beijing editors apparently posted on the Tencent QQ messaging board used by mainland China Wikipedia editors, threatening to name pro-democracy editors in Hong Kong to the National Security Police. HKFP singled out an editor from mainland China for serious criticism: User:Walter Grassroot (henceforth, WG).
A Signpost investigation shows that WG has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that he has edited Wikipedia with a strategic purpose of "counter-reconnaissance".[2]
Though HKFP couldn't confirm that the Tencent user "Walter Grassroot" was the same person as the zh.WP editor with that username, they stated that the Tencent user with that name replied to a posting of the Security Police's phone number with the message "We should report those from the Hong Kong user group." HKFP also posted a graphic containing screenshots of the messages in Chinese. WG told The Signpost that he denies all of the HKFP accusations.
- ^ Deutsche Welle video on the closing of Apple Daily
- ^ Email from WG to Smallbones, July 24, 2021. All other quotes in this article from WG were also confirmed in this email.