A Chinese activist working in Australia has been ordered report to police when she returns home after she created a Twitter account mocking President Xi Jinping.
Wuyuan Dong Zoo was born in the city of Hefei in the Anhui Province in eastern China and is currently living in Melbourne on a temporary working holiday visa.
The 30-year-old, who describes herself as a human rights activist, uses Twitter to criticise the Chinese Communist Party for hiding information from its citizens.
In June she organised a protest in Melbourne which criticised China for censoring information about the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Wuyuan Dong Zoo was born in the city of Hefei in the Anhui Province in eastern China and is currently living in Melbourne on a temporary working holiday visa
The demonstration also served as a memorial for whistleblower Li Wenliang – the Wuhan doctor who was arrested after he tried to warn the world about coronavirus before dying of the disease.
But Chinese officials have warned Ms Zoo that her presence in Australia does not make her exempt from Chinese laws, which are designed to protect the government from criticism.
In a video call with Chinese police, an officer sits with Ms Zoo’s father as he says: ‘Let me tell you, you need to remember you are a citizen of the People’s Republic of China.’
‘Although you are [in Australia], you are still governed by the law of China, do you understand?’
The policeman warns Ms Zoo against speaking out against President Xi Jinping and asks her multiple times to hand over her Twitter password.
At one stage Ms Zoo even denies the account is hers but the officer demands that she ‘come to the police station’ when she returns to China.
‘Let me make it clear to you, what you are putting out on Twitter is absolutely not permitted,’ he says.
In a video call with Chinese police, an officer (pictured) sits with Ms Zoo’s father as he says: ‘Let me tell you, you need to remember you are a citizen of the People’s Republic of China.’
Ms Zoo (pictured) hid her identity by wearing face masks and using a pseudonym until June 2
Twitter has been blocked in China, along with Facebook, Instagram, and anything the government believe could harm the nation’s image.
This also includes Winnie the Pooh after internet users compared President Xi Jinping to the lovable bear in memes.
Ms Zoo told SBS that her parents are being questioned by police on a weekly basis.
Although also said she doesn’t know how police tracked her down because she hid her identity by wearing face masks and using a pseudonym until June 2.
While she fears for their safety, Ms Zoo said she won’t give in to the government’s scare tactics.
Born as an only child to a professor who teaches Community Party theory at university, her relationship with her parents – who have pleaded with her to stop speaking out against the government – has become fractured.
Her father has requested she turn herself in to Chinese authorities for her criminal activity, but Ms Zoo said she believes they have been ‘brainwashed by the regime’.
‘In the end, I blame what the Chinese government has created, this control and dictatorship is really the reason our relationship has been ripped apart,’ she said.
Pictured: Ms Zoo at a protest she helped organise in Victoria against the death of Li Wenliang who first tried to warn the world about coronavirus
China has strict laws designed to fiercely protect the government’s image from negative commentary. Pictured: Chinese President Xi Jinping
Ms Zoo first became disillusioned with the Chinese government after she used a location-blocking VPN in China to access otherwise illegal websites detailing the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The seven-week pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing ended when military tanks and personnel entered the scene, setting vehicles on fire and killing thousands.
The protests, first labeled a ‘counterrevolutionary riot,’ are now referred to as ‘political turmoil,’ when they are referred to at all, in an attempt to suppress all memory of them having occurred.
Ms Zoo said what she found was ‘completely different to what we were taught in school’.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Chinese embassy in Australia for comment.