Li Yuchen | I lost 40 public accounts, and I’m still looking for netizens to help me publish articles

Text | Li Yuchen

Perhaps, like me, you are swept away by the torrent of information every day, and there are always moments when you are deeply stung by the people and events on the other side of the screen that you have never met:

They are the individuals who have nowhere to go and do not know where to call for help;
They are the souls who have been wronged but find it difficult to defend their innocence;
They are also the common sense that should be social consensus, but we need to shout out again and again.

I am Li Yuchen, an independent writer who has long focused on the rule of law and social justice issues. My writing is a continuous race against forgetting and censorship.

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It’s getting harder and harder to run

In the past year or so, because I wrote articles exposing judicial injustice and supervising the abuse of power, I have had more than 40 public accounts permanently banned. I may be the person who had the most accounts banned last year because of writing articles.

Just last week, I was wiped out again—7 accounts, all gone overnight.

Last summer, after writing a biography for that young intern lawyer, more than a dozen of my accounts were simultaneously wiped out overnight. These names that are constantly reincarnated and constantly wiped out are all marks of my race against censorship:

Standing in the dust, text standing in the dust, moths chasing the sun, reason and dust, Li Yu Chen, Li Yu Chen, not silent, Li Yuchen of taming the wilderness, carving the boat to seek the sword, using an egg to hit a wall, lying on firewood and tasting fire, drinking ice to quench thirst, mantis trying to stop a chariot, moths in the fire, Kuafu filling the sea, covering ears to the mouth, Dong Shi Xiao Pin, laughing birth record…

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Not just account bans

Account bans are just online matters. Offline, they didn’t let me go either.

Because I wrote an article criticizing the imposition of political standards over legal professionalism, the police then pressured the law firm I work for, and the law firm couldn’t hold on, so they used means to make me unable to practice normally.

At the same time, my home was also harassed. I supported the auditors who were taken away, and the police found my parents who were far away in my hometown, trying to force me to shut up with family affection.

Six years ago, when the public health incident just broke out, I wrote an article on my public account about a doctor who was punished for speaking the truth, calling for freedom of speech, and as a result, I was interviewed by the police overnight for 8 hours. The account was banned, but I didn’t stop, I changed my way and continued to write.

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What am I writing about

In the past year or so, I have written more than a hundred articles, all of which record the people and events of this era that should not be forgotten. I have far more materials in hand than I have published, maybe only one-tenth of them have been published. What one person can do is indeed limited, but I have tried my best.

Finding a public language for the suffering of the minority.

Lanzhou police used the method of “deep-sea fishing” to arrest a large number of authors of danmei novels across provinces. I felt that outsiders would find it difficult to understand “Temptation Literature”, so I changed the title—”Lanzhou arrested a group of female college students who write novels”.

Later, I wrote “99 Common Sense about the Temptation Literature Case”, dismantling the absurd logic of “profiting by attracting traffic to the platform”.

In the “Luo Moumou case” in Hunan, the official report seemed to be comprehensive, but I found something that was deliberately omitted—a “suicide determination” agreement.

Staring at power to write.

“A group of people in Henan who fabricated facts appeared on CCTV and became anti-fraud heroes”, “After the release of the detention, private entrepreneurs chose to commit suicide”—what I have always written is what power does not want people to see.

“Finding Xu Xinrui” records a young woman who was placed under house arrest for eight years and sent to a mental hospital simply because she reported her superiors.

Heilongjiang police went to Shenzhen across provinces and arrested 375 female anchors of a platform in one go—what I wrote is how this “deep-sea fishing” turns law enforcement into a business.

When reporting the “Zhengzhou lawyer’s debate on jurisdiction” incident, I recorded a person who was listening in, and was taken away from the courtroom and detained for five days simply because he used the word “snatch” in the article.

Writing for colleagues.

I wrote a long biography for a young lawyer colleague—he challenged the industry’s unspoken rules and was removed by the Lawyers Association, he spoke out for the wronged villagers and overturned the result of “seven hard stones are innocent”, he spoke out for the companies whose assets were embezzled, and finally he went to the detention center, and the crime was exactly the “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” that he had always called for abolishing. The detail that he read “Soul Calling” in prison is more revealing than any comment.

“Wu Lei, always vindicating until he was wronged” wrote the trajectory of a “die-hard” lawyer from a vindicator to a wronged person. I also paid the price—after supporting a colleague whose annual inspection was blocked, my lawyer’s certificate was almost “assassinated”.

Racing against time. At the end of October 2025, a death sentence was about to be executed, and I published the “Spare the Knife” series within 72 hours, from “There is not much time left for the Supreme People’s Court” to “Justice can be late, tomorrow’s death sentence must be on time”. I didn’t save him, but at least I left a record.

“Her justice is her evidence of guilt” wrote a woman who fought because of her faith—her sobriety is evidence of guilt, her testimony is evidence of guilt, and her refusal to repent is even more evidence of guilt.

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After writing it

Although my articles are constantly deleted and banned on the platform, they have not disappeared. Many articles have been included and preserved by multiple independent information archiving platforms, becoming digital evidence against censorship and forgetting.

At the same time, my writing has also been recognized and followed by some professional colleagues. A podcast invited me as a guest to share my experience of using new technology tools to organize materials and construct narratives. Some of my articles and viewpoints have also gained continuous dissemination and discussion in a wider Chinese information circle.

I always believe that the voice of an independent writer, even if it is weak, can penetrate the barriers and be heard by those who need it in a certain corner.

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I am like a relay runner in an endless track, watching one torch after another go out in my hands. I urgently need new companions to hand me the next torch so that I can continue to move forward.

Therefore, I would like to initiate a somewhat clumsy but crucial long-term request—like a persistent “scavenger”, collecting those corners that can continue to speak out:

I sincerely hope that friends are willing to hand over your idle or newly registered public accounts to me for operation.

Let it become a new position, so that more voices that should not be drowned out can be heard. Before you make a decision, I must present everything, especially the risks, to you without reservation.

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A frank communication (please read carefully)

1. Regarding the risks, I must tell the truth: In the current context, there are inevitable risks in speaking out on such issues.

The ownership of the WeChat public account is permanently bound to your personal identity information and cannot be transferred. Tencent has retained all background information.

In extreme cases, if someone intends to investigate through non-normal means, there is theoretically a possibility of finding you.

I am well aware that every friend who is willing to lend a helping hand is in a different life situation. Perhaps you are a student still in school, or perhaps you are an ordinary person who is working hard for your family. Everyone’s ability to resist risks is completely different.

Therefore, I will put your safety first, and according to the specific circumstances of different account owners, I will cautiously evaluate and adjust the scale and strategy of publishing content on the account.

I must also responsibly inform you that since last year, I have been running around with accounts provided by dozens of friends.

During this time:

Not a single account owner has been troubled or questioned in any form.

Even so, I cannot guarantee that the risk is absolutely zero.

2. Regarding cooperation, our rights and responsibilities agreement: This is a trust based on pure trust, not a commercial cooperation.

You are the owner of the public account. I am the operator of the content.

I will change the name and avatar of the public account, and do everything possible to cut off any association between the account and your personal information, to protect your privacy to the greatest extent. The content and rewards belong to me.

All articles published by the account are my original works, so the copyright of the articles and the “reward” income at the end of the article will belong to me. This is the source of my continued writing and livelihood.

The income of the traffic owner belongs to you. If the account subsequently opens the “traffic owner” function, all the income generated will belong to you. Of course, you have the right to choose not to open this function. You can withdraw the account at any time.

If you are willing, I hope to find such a you:

You have an idle personal public account, and after changing the name, you are willing to hand it over to me for use.
You don’t have an account, but you are willing to spend a few minutes to register a brand new public account for me. (Download the “Public Account Assistant” App on your mobile phone to easily complete the registration. The name can use the homophone of my name, such as “Li Yuchen”, “Li Yuchen”)

What I can give back is my promise: to do my best to write about those people and events that deserve to be seen, so that more weak but tenacious voices can leave their due echoes.

If you have this intention, you can contact me in any of the following ways: