Su Yutong, a journalist of Chinese origin living in Germany since 2010 is one among the many female journalists who are being targetted by organised trolling. File picture. Source: Twitter
Su Yutong, a journalist of Chinese origin living in Germany since 2010 is one among the many female journalists who are being targetted by organised trolling. File picture. Source: Twitter
Zurich: China’s state-backed trolling of exiled journalists, especially women, is no longer just a theory as many reports from think tanks around the world have over and over presented evidence.
Gangs of hackers harass, and sometimes abuse, journalists who do not fall in line with Beijing’s agenda.
In the most recent case, a woman journalist of Chinese origin, who has been living in exile in Germany since 2010, has complained of being targeted by an organised trolling gang of hackers, who she suspects are backed by her own country.
From fake escorts ad to bomb threats tied to reservations under her name at hotels in Berlin, Houston and Hong Kong, blackmailing over doctored nude pictures, catcalling, rape threats, deaths threats, fake social media accounts, Su Yutong has seen it all.
The trolls are actively sucking up to Yu’s patience and sanity for almost 10 months, according to a report by Radio Free Asia.
Su grew up in China but since 2010 has lived in Germany, where she works as a journalist, including for Radio Free Asia.
Early in June, the strange guys began visiting Su Yutong’s Berlin apartment. For several weeks, one or two would show up every day.
Su said, “Almost every day, a different person rings my doorbell.” They claim to be there in search of sex with an Asian lady.
According to the report, Su alleges that a fake Twitter account with her name and the word “bitch” was created.
She’s been threatened with doctored nude photographs and forged receipts from adult stores. She said hackers even tried to access her social media and bank accounts.
In November, German police told her to leave her apartment after she received rape and death threats, apparently from one particularly aggressive harasser over Telegram.
For a time, she said she felt a wave of nausea around strange men in public, though more out of embarrassment than fear, she said.
“I don’t know what other things they will do to harass and threaten me, but it has … really affected my life,” Su said.
Why is she being targeted?
Su claims that since fleeing China in 2010 to live in exile in Germany and carry on her reporting career, she has become the target of abuse.
However, after she went to a commemorative event for the 1989 Tiananmen Square tragedy in June, the name-calling, threats, and other harassing behaviours increased.
She has made a number of police reports in Germany. Su’s case originally appeared to be the work of a specific person, a lone stalker, according to one official.
Su, like other harassed reporters of Chinese descent, worries that her harassers may be connected to the Chinese government because there is proof of a larger conspiracy.
Su’s case is being looked into by German police, but they have declined to explain.
Even Chinese embassy in Germany was tried for a comment however the efforts were unsuccessful.
How it started?
Su told Radio Free Asia that when she was attending the June 4 commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre, a middle-aged Chinese guy approached the protesters and began taking pictures.
Two days later, at around five in the morning, she received a Telegram message with the subject “Who’s this?” and a picture of herself that had been digitally changed to appear naked.
The sender advised Chinese migrants not to draw attention to China’s shortcomings.
The event’s organiser confirmed to RFA that the same account also approached her. She and Su both Telegram banned the number. Su doesn’t know how they obtained her phone number.
A day or two later, Su’s apartment began to get visits from unknown men.
She did not answer the door, but in exchanges with them in German, they indicated they were looking for sex, and believed her to be a sex worker.
A friend of Su’s who RFA spoke with witnessed one encounter in August. The man ran when Su threatened to call the police.
Bomb threats and fake ads
Su covered a harassment case involving Wang Jingyu, a young dissident residing in exile in the Netherlands, for RFA in October.
Su informed RFA that following the publication of the report, another man began to harass her, including by making hotel reservations and subsequently making bomb threats in her name.
He informed Su and Wang that he supported the CCP and threatened them via text and video messages.
In the report, RFA chose not to mention the name of the accused since it is impossible to confirm his identity and attempts to get in touch with him proved fruitless.
Su and Wang were given a receipt for an electronic money transfer that the man claimed to be from a Chinese handler.
He also claimed that the handler had instructed him to post doctored advertisements about Su as a sex worker on German-language websites, advertisements that are likely what attracted the random men to her door.
Later on, the harasser threatened to humiliate Su in front of the public by sending her forged papers, including a receipt for sex toys.
“I am truly very traditional. Nightclubs have never been my thing, Su admitted. As she noted how important her Christian faith is to her, she continued, “I can never imagine myself getting involved with prostitution and sex services.”
“This is fatal to me,” she said.
She and Wang reported the harassment to police. After that, the abuse grew worse. Later, after rape and death threats, police advised Su to move houses.
Police declined to comment to RFA, other than confirming that “an investigation into suspected threats is being conducted by the Berlin police under the case number you provided.”
Su hasn’t heard from the harasser who ejected her from her apartment in weeks, according to the RFA story.
After February 9, a Facebook page created in his name ceased to be operational.
Su, however, claimed that the harassment never stops.
In regards to hotel reservations and/or bomb threats made in her name in Hong Kong, Macau, Istanbul, New York, Houston, and Los Angeles, she got a flurry of calls on February 11 and 12.
Su told RFA that she was informed by hotel staff that the bookings included deposits, which suggested that the offenders had some financial means. RFA looked at a screengrab from her phone that showed a continuous stream of unknown contacts.
Su claimed that a stranger had contacted the day before and offered to pay her in cash.
Cost of being a ‘female’ Journalist
According to a poll conducted by the International Women’s Media Foundation and Trollbusters, a group that keeps track of online harassment, nearly 70% of female journalists have been subjected to some kind of abuse because of their jobs.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a think tank with offices in Canberra, stated in a study published in 2022 that harassment of female journalists of Asian descent who write critically about China can be especially aggressive and seems to be on the rise.
State-organised trolling
The ASPI in his covered several instances of journalists covering China for leading global news platforms being targeted through posts including graphic online depictions of sexual assault, homophobia and racist imagery and life-threatening intimidation
At least some of those offending posts are likely linked to the Chinese government, ASPI concluded. Accounts that had promoted CCP policies pivoted to harass the journalists, the report found.
Even as Su was harassed by individuals who claimed to back the Chinese government and cautioned her against criticising Beijing in her writing or speaking.
However, this type of abuse always has the same goal: “to silence the view of these women and also serve as a deterrence against others reporting critically on China,” Albert Zhang, a co-author of the report said.
Why only Female journalists?
Those who observe China closely claim that since Chinese journalists can look behind the secrecy the CCP attempts to uphold through its own highly censored media, they can be seen as threats.
They are fluent in the language, are familiar with the history of the nation, and have contacts in China who can give them insight into what really goes on.
Male journalists who cover China also experience abuse, but the women claim that because of the pervasive sexism in both Chinese society and internet culture as a whole, they are more frequently the targets.
Yaqiu Wang, a senior China analyst at Human Rights Watch who has written about harassment against opponents of the government, said: “I tweet, but I never go on Twitter because there is just too much crap.”
Every time Wang makes a reference to China in a tweet, she says she should be prepared for hundreds of negative comments, but she doesn’t care to read them.
“I don’t want to read 200 comments in which individuals accuse me of betraying my country,” she said.
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