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Software Engineer, Fiancee Sentenced To Prison For Developing Application To Break China’s Internet Censorship
Epoch Times ^ | 06/27/2023 | Freda Wu and Sophia Lam

Posted on 06/27/2023 10:03:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Two people, who were detained by Shanghai State Security Police in October 2021 for developing software that circumvents the Great Firewall, received six- and five-year prison sentences on June 12, 2023.
Undated file photo of Zhang Yibo (L) and He Binggang (R). (Courtesy of Falun Dafa Infocenter)

He Binggang and his fiancée Zhang Yibo, along with several others, were arrested on Oct. 9, 2021, for developing and maintaining software that helps people living in China access overseas internet platforms, according to the Falun Dafa Infocenter.

The Chinese regime set up Great Firewall (GFW), or Golden Shield Project, in 1998, which is managed by the regime’s Ministry of Public Security to monitor and censor what can and cannot be seen in China through an online network.

He and Zhang are Falun Gong adherents, a spiritual practice that has been persecuted inside China since 1999 and has been the subject of intense political propaganda.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual improvement practice based on principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, with five slow-moving, gentle exercises that have significant physical benefits. The practice has been very popular in China, with an estimated 70 million to 100 million practitioners in the country before the Chinese communist regime began to persecute the belief and its followers in July 1999.

He and Zhang had developed software called oGate that allows Chinese people to freely access websites and information available outside of China but which are blocked by the GFW and otherwise unavailable inside China.

Persecuted for Belief: Reports

He and Zhang have been subjected to long-term persecution by the Chinese regime for their belief in Falun Gong.

According to Minghui.org, the police denied He’s lawyer from visiting him at Shanghai’s Changning District Detention Center. On March 10, 2022, his lawyer was allowed to talk to him on the phone at the detention center, but without seeing him in person.

He’s physical condition is very poor because of repeated torture by the Chinese regime.

“His neck issue and partial paralysis, which resulted from torture during [the] previous detention, worsened. He has now completely lost the ability to walk and has become bedridden. He has trouble falling asleep at night and suffers from constant dizziness, headache, and incontinence,” Minghui reported in June 2023.

He, 46, has been imprisoned two times previously.

He is a gifted software engineer, according to Minghui.org, a platform that tracks the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

When he was 15 years old he created “Computerized Audible Aids for the Blind.” The invention won the Silver Award of the Sixth National Invention Award and the “Sixth Shanghai Yilida Youth Invention Award.”

He obtained a certificate in computer application software engineering as a senior programmer when he was only 16.

In 1994, He was admitted into Fudan University, and four years later he entered the graduate program.

In 2000, he was detained by police and later given a six-year sentence at Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison.

Fudan University expelled him.

In 2007, He was released and he began his own technological company. But in 2010, he was detained again for his spiritual practice.

According to a June report on Minghui.org, He was tortured when he was imprisoned for the second time, and the beatings caused him to become paralyzed due to severe spinal injuries. He was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2011 despite having been paralyzed.

Zhang was a business manager for a foreign company. The Xuhui Court sentenced her to one and a half years in prison in 2009 for her spiritual practice, according to Minghui.org.

Read more here...


TOPICS: China; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: censorship; china; software

1 posted on 06/27/2023 10:03:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

May their organs remain unharvested.


2 posted on 06/27/2023 10:10:56 PM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Locking up their most clever software engineers is such a great idea. I hope they do a lot more of it.


3 posted on 06/27/2023 10:11:47 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: SeekAndFind

Bttt.

5.56mm


4 posted on 06/27/2023 10:20:38 PM PDT by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho have got to go)
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To: SeekAndFind

Dear Father, I know he’s not a son of yours, yet. But it is written all things are possible with You. Please help this young man and woman. If it is Your will, please let him find freedom and safety, here or elsewhere as You Will. Lead them to a saving knowledge of your Son. In Jesus Name I ask, with thankfulness and gratitude that me and mine are safe here in America and still free to worship only You. Amen.


5 posted on 06/27/2023 10:22:12 PM PDT by dadfly
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To: SeekAndFind

The Big Guy and his cowardly lion Blinken don’t give a damn. There’s no percentage in it for them and Hunter.


6 posted on 06/27/2023 10:27:19 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper (Figures )
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To: SeekAndFind

chicoms are worse than the nazis. the nazis did not have the tech control, spycams, that chicoms have. barbarians.


7 posted on 06/27/2023 10:38:26 PM PDT by KingofZion
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To: SeekAndFind
Upon reading the story, I found I was wrong in my assumption that the Department of Justice was prosecuting US Citizens, or at least, US Residents, for daring to oppose the CCP.

Wrong in this particular case, anyway.

8 posted on 06/27/2023 10:44:57 PM PDT by Pilsner
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To: SeekAndFind

Paralyzed from previous beatings. That poor man.

I don’t know why they hate Falun Gong so much.


9 posted on 06/27/2023 11:00:53 PM PDT by KittyKares
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To: KittyKares

It’s a non-marxist outlook on life that could become a nucleus of strength for non-marxists.


10 posted on 06/28/2023 3:04:40 AM PDT by ClarityGuy
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To: SeekAndFind

i’ve considered doing something similar but here in the US.

was told not to do it... as they’d put me in jail (US govt).

guess that was accurate


11 posted on 06/28/2023 4:52:16 AM PDT by sten (fighting tyranny never goes out of style)
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To: sten

> was told not to do it... as they’d put me in jail (US govt).

Everybody is a terrorist these days. Go Patriot Act!


12 posted on 06/28/2023 5:08:56 AM PDT by glorgau
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