袁莉2026年6月2日 Li YingOne afternoon in October 2024, Li Ying was lying in bed, scrolling through X, when he got a notification on his phone from the peephole security camera on his apartment door in Turin, Italy.2024年10月的一个下午，李颖正躺在床上刷着X，这时他位于意大利都灵公寓门上的猫眼监控摄像头向他的手机发来了通知。Two men were lingering in the hallway.两名男子正在走廊里徘徊。He got up quietly, went to the door and watched them through the camera feed on his phone.他悄悄站起身，走到门前，通过手机上的摄像头画面观察他们。For two years, ever since he turned his X account into one of the most influential Chinese-language sources for uncensored news and dissent, Mr. Li had received threats of physical harm. Should those threats ever come to pass, he imagined summoning the courage to livestream his capture, possibly even his own death.两年来，自从他把自己的X账号变成了最具影响力的中文未审查新闻和异见来源之一，李颖就不断收到人身伤害的威胁。他想象过，如果这些威胁真的变成现实，自己要鼓起勇气，直播自己被捕、甚至可能是自己死亡的过程。When one of the men reached into his pocket, Mr. Li froze. He forgot to livestream.当其中一名男子把手伸进兜里时，李颖僵住了。他忘了开直播。The man pulled out a can of spray paint and scrawled the word “stupro,” Italian for rape. Then both men left.那个男子掏出了一罐喷漆，在墙上胡乱写下了“stupro”这个词——意大利语意为“强奸”。然后两人便离开了。Mr. Li’s worst fears had not come to pass. He called the police. Four officers came, and they took his statement and his security camera footage. A friend drove from Milan to collect him and his two cats. By morning the apartment was empty.李颖最担心的可怕情况并未发生。他报了警。四名警察赶到现场，记录了他的陈述并取走了他的安全摄像头录像。一位朋友从米兰开车来接他和他的两只猫。到了清晨，公寓里已空无一人。After that moment, Mr. Li, who is known as “Teacher Li” to his followers on social media, decided that his life should not be dictated by fear. Rather than back down, he expanded his activities — traveling, attending human rights conferences and meeting diplomats, journalists, activists and politicians across Europe, Asia and North America.经历了那个时刻后，在社交媒体上被粉丝称为“李老师”的李颖决定，他的生活不应该被恐惧所支配。他没有退缩，而是扩大了自己的活动范围——四处旅行、参加人权会议，并与欧洲、亚洲和北美各地的外交官、记者、活动人士和政治人士会面。“When you are able to face the abyss directly,” Mr. Li said, “the abyss gradually starts to fear you instead.”“当你能够直面深渊时，”李颖说。“深渊反而渐渐开始害怕你了。”The Italian police have not released any information about the investigation, but Mr. Li was certain that the Chinese government had hired the vandals. Under Xi Jinping, censorship and surveillance have made sustained dissent inside China extremely difficult. Beijing has proved equally determined to pursue those who speak out from abroad.意大利警方尚未公布任何关于调查的信息，但李颖确信，这些破坏者是中国政府雇佣的。在习近平执政下，审查和监控使得在中国境内持续进行异议活动变得极其困难。北京同样表示坚决追击那些在海外公开发声的人。Mr. Li, 34, is among the biggest targets of Beijing. Constant doxxing kept him on the move. Smears and death threats filled his X feed. Then the intimidation turned physical: Strangers appeared at his door, photographed his building and scrawled threats in his hallway.现年34岁的李颖是北京最大的目标之一。持续不断的个人信息泄露让他不停搬迁。抹黑和死亡威胁充斥着他的X动态。接着，恐吓演变成了实质的人身骚扰：陌生人出现在他的家门口，拍摄他的公寓楼，在他的走廊里写下恐吓话语。A growing number of Chinese who found living in an authoritarian state intolerable have moved abroad. Most are too fearful of a vengeful government to speak up. But people like Mr. Li provide an alternative to the official government narratives through podcasts, YouTube channels, bookstores and X accounts run from Tokyo, Toronto and New York.越来越多的中国人因无法忍受生活在威权国家而移居海外。他们中大多数人因害怕遭到政府的报复而不敢发声。但也有李颖这样的人，通过从东京、多伦多和纽约运营的播客、YouTube频道、书店和X账号，提供了另一种打破官方政府叙事的视角。Few have reached an audience as large as Mr. Li’s.鲜少有人能像李颖那样触及如此庞大的受众。According to data analytics firm Similarweb, his X account, which has 2.2 million followers, ranked fifth globally on the site by traffic in December — extraordinary for an account written in Chinese. From 2023 to 2025, the account generated more than six billion views each year.根据数据分析公司Similarweb的数据，他拥有220万粉丝的X账号访问量在去年12月位居全球第五——这对于一个用中文账号来说是惊人的。从2023年到2025年，该账号每年都能创造超过60亿次的浏览量。He posts accounts of unemployed university graduates, delivery drivers who once held more prestigious jobs, the people who spent money on apartments that were never built or who were never paid for their work. Some of the information is sent by people inside China, such as videos of the police cracking down on Wuhan residents protesting plans for a battery factory. Some posts come from Chinese social media sites, such as Weibo and Douyin, the sister short video app of TikTok.他发布的内容涉及失业大学毕业生、曾经从事过更体面工作的外卖骑手、为烂尾楼付款的人，或劳务费未获支付的人。其中一些信息来自中国国内人士，比如警察镇压武汉居民抗议电池厂规划的视频。还有一些帖子来自中国的社交媒体网站，如微博和抖音（TikTok的姊妹短视频应用）。“His is not just a single voice,” said Laura Harth, a director based in Italy for Safeguard Defenders, a human rights organization. “He’s like the loudspeaker through which all the other voices” — Chinese voices — “come out into the world.”“他的声音不仅仅代表他自己，”总部位于意大利的人权组织“保护卫士”的负责人劳拉·哈思说。“他就像一个扬声器，所有其他的声音”——中国人的声音——“通过他传向世界。”A Cute and Menacing Cat一只可爱又带着一丝威胁的猫Mr. Li grew up in eastern China’s Anhui Province and has been drawing for as long as he can remember. He moved to Italy to study painting. In November 2022, when demonstrations erupted in China protesting the country’s draconian “zero Covid” policies, he was living in Milan. He had a modest following on Twitter, as X was known at the time; his avatar is a hand-drawn cat that’s simultaneously cute and menacing.李颖在中国东部的安徽省长大，从记事起就一直在画画。他搬到意大利是为了学习绘画。2022年11月，当中国暴发抗议严厉“清零”政策的示威活动时，他正住在米兰。当时他在Twitter（即后来的X）上只有少量的关注者；他的头像是一只手绘的猫，看起来既可爱又带着一丝威胁。The protests were the largest wave of public dissent since Tiananmen Square in 1989. Mr. Li opened his account to anyone inside China with something to show the world. People began sending him photographs, videos and witness accounts — for example, of police officers arresting protesters or people chanting for Mr. Xi to step down — that would have been censored on the Chinese internet. His following exploded.那些抗议活动是自1989年天安门广场事件以来最大规模的公开异见浪潮。李颖向所有身在中国国内、并且有内容想向世界展示的人开放了他的账号。人们开始向他发送照片、视频和目击者称述——例如警察逮捕抗议者，或是人们高喊让习近平下台的场景——这些内容在中国的互联网上都会被迅速审查屏蔽。他的粉丝量随即迎来了爆炸式增长。Then came the retaliation.接踵而至的是报复。Each time he posted online, the police would appear at his parents’ house in Anhui. The Chinese Embassy in Italy wrote to a language school in Milan where Mr. Li worked, accusing him of fraud. He lost his job.每当他在网上发布消息，警察就会出现在他安徽父母的家门前。中国驻意大利大使馆向李颖工作的一所米兰语言学校致信，指控他诈骗。他因此失去了工作。His parents begged him to stop posting. His bank accounts in China were frozen. So were his payment apps and gaming accounts.他的父母哀求他停止发帖。他在国内的银行账户被冻结，他的支付应用和游戏账号也同样被封禁。Convinced he was being tracked, he moved four times in a year. At his most isolated, he did not leave his building for two weeks, surviving mostly on McDonald’s takeout delivered to his house.由于确信自己被追踪，他在一年内搬了四次家。在最孤立无援的时候，他连续两周没有离开过公寓，主要靠送上门的麦当劳外卖度日。In 2024, the police in China began summoning Mr. Li’s followers and pressuring them to unfollow his account. Then came the graffiti in Turin.2024年，国内警方开始传唤李颖的关注者，施压要求他们取消关注他的账号。随后发生了都灵走廊里的涂鸦事件。Elon Musk Replies埃隆·马斯克的回复China runs the most extensive version of transnational repression in the world, touching millions of people in at least 36 countries, according to a 2021 Freedom House report. Beijing uses espionage, cyberattacks, threats and physical assaults to silence and punish its critics.根据“自由之家” 2021年的一份报告，中国实施着世界上最广泛的跨国镇压系统，波及至少36个国家数以百万计的民众。北京利用间谍活动、网络攻击、威胁和人身攻击来使批评者噤声并对其进行惩罚。Over the past few years, the authorities in Europe and the United States have investigated and prosecuted cases linked to Beijing’s efforts to monitor and intimidate dissidents abroad.在过去的几年里，欧洲和美国当局调查并起诉了多起与北京试图监视和恐吓海外异见人士相关的案件。In February, an OpenAI report documented how Chinese law enforcement had used the company’s ChatGPT to conduct online influence operations against dissidents and foreign leaders, using Mr. Li as one of the examples. Mr. Li’s team and Safeguard Defenders encourage overseas Chinese to document their experiences of Beijing’s transnational repression and submit evidence to the authorities in democratic countries.今年2月，OpenAI的一份报告详细记录了中国执法部门如何利用该公司的ChatGPT对异见人士和外国领导人进行在线舆论引导，并以李颖作为例子。李颖的团队和“保护卫士”鼓励海外华人记录自己遭遇北京跨国镇压的经历，并向民主国家的当局提交证据。Beijing denies accusations of transnational repression and accuses foreign governments of interfering in China’s internal affairs.北京坚决否认有关跨国镇压的指控，并指责外国政府干涉中国内政。I’ve talked to Mr. Li many times over the years. I once joked to him that there are two publications I read every day to keep up with China news: the official People’s Daily and his X feed.这些年来，我曾与李颖交谈过许多次。我曾向他开玩笑说，为了解中国新闻，有两份出版物是我每天必读的：一份是官方的《人民日报》，另一份就是他的X平台动态。Early on, he resisted the “rebel” label and told me that he regretted what he had gotten himself into. He was incredulous that some Chinese pinned their hope of democracy on an influencer like him. Having paid the price of dissent, he understood why so few people dared to speak out.在早期，他抗拒“反叛者”的标签，并曾告诉我他后悔让自己陷入这种境地。有些中国人将民主的希望寄托在像他这样的网红身上，这让他感到不可思议。在付出了反抗的代价后，他理解了为什么很少有人敢于公开说话。But as time passed, Mr. Li seemed increasingly comfortable inhabiting his role as an activist. He still doesn’t want his photo taken, and he surveys any room he enters. But the man who once hid inside his apartment now moves confidently through airports and attends conferences and visits embassies. He briefs diplomats on what’s going on in China and Beijing’s methods of transnational repression.但随着时间的推移，李颖似乎越来越习惯于自己作为活动人士的角色。他仍然不希望被拍下照片，并且每进入一个房间都会仔细环视四周。然而，这位曾经躲在公寓里不敢出门的人，现在已经自信地穿梭于各大机场、出席各种会议并拜访各国大使馆。他向外交官们简报中国的现状以及北京实施跨国镇压的手段。He oversees staff and volunteers who help aggregate news and manage his X account as well as putting out a new weekly newsletter in English. In February 2025, Mr. Li’s team organized a crowdsourced investigation into long school hours inside China, drawing thousands of submissions from students and parents. Some schools adjusted their schedules after the findings circulated widely online. (His work is supported by private donors.)他领导着一支由员工和志愿者组成的团队，负责汇总新闻、管理他的X账号，并每周发布一份英文简报。2025年2月，李颖的团队组织了一次针对中国国内学生在校时间过长的众包调查，吸引了数以千计学生和家长的反馈。在调查结果于网上广泛流传后，一些学校调整了作息时间表。（他的工作由私人捐助者资助。）In December, I asked whether he considered himself a revolutionary. He hesitated.去年12月，我问他是否认为自己是一个革命者。他犹豫了。The word, he said, carries associations with violence and bloodshed — things he abhors.他说，这个词会让人联想到暴力和流血——而这些是他所厌恶的。But Mr. Li said he now saw his work as part of a nonviolent struggle against Communist Party rule.但李颖表示，他现在将自己的工作视为反对共产党统治的非暴力抗争的一部分。“For a long time, I was the one being chased by them,” he told me, referring to the Chinese government. “But now, I’ve turned the tables — I’m the one pursuing them around the world and pushing back against them.”“在很长一段时间里，我都是那个被他们追捕的人，”他指的是中方政府。“但现在，我反客为主——是我在世界各地追着他们，并且做出反击。”In April, we met in Tokyo. Mr. Li likes the city because of its Chinese diaspora, which in recent years has attracted a growing number of journalists, activists and intellectuals.今年4月，我们在东京见面。李颖喜欢这座城市，因为这里有庞大的华人流散群体，近年来吸引了越来越多移居此地的记者、活动人士和知识分子。He also likes the proximity to China — as close, perhaps, as an exiled dissident can get.他同样喜欢这里距离中国很近——对于一位流亡异见人士来说，这或许是能达到的最近距离了。In May, during President Trump’s state visit to China, Mr. Li’s posts made a brief splash on Chinese social media. Mr. Li’s account had posted a photo showing Mr. Musk walking with his young son, who was wearing a Chinese-style vest. Mr. Musk, a member of the U.S. delegation, replied to the post in Chinese: “My son is learning Mandarin.”5月，在特朗普总统对中国进行国事访问期间，李颖发布的帖子在中国社交媒体上引发了短暂的轰动。李颖的账号发布了一张照片，画面显示马斯克正与他年幼的儿子走在一起，孩子穿着一件中式马甲。作为美国代表团成员的马斯克用中文回复了该帖子：“我的儿子正在学普通话。”The exchange quickly became one of the most discussed topics on Chinese social media. A state media outlet created a hashtag #ElonMusksaidhissonislearningChinese on the Weibo platform. Some comments slyly asked, “So, to whom he was responding?” After a few hours, the hashtag was deleted.这一互动迅速成为中国社交媒体上讨论度最高的话题之一。一家官媒在微博平台上创建了标签“#埃隆·马斯克说儿子正在学中文#”。一些评论敏锐地暗讽道：“那他是在回复谁呢？”几小时后，这个标签被删除了。Soon after, Mr. Li posted an image generated by artificial intelligence showing Mr. Musk and Mr. Xi seated together at a state dinner. Mr. Musk was holding up a phone toward the Chinese leader.不久之后，李颖发布了一张由人工智能生成的图片，画面中马斯克和习近平在国宴上并肩而坐。马斯克正拿着手机给这位中国领导人看。On the screen was Mr. Li’s mischievous cat avatar.而在那块手机屏幕上，显示的正是李颖那只调皮的猫咪头像。 袁莉为《纽约时报》撰写“新新世界”专栏，专注中国及亚洲科技、商业和政治交叉议题。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。