I understand not everyone thought our little April fools joke was as funny as the mod team did, but I didn't want it to be just a joke, I also wanted an opportunity to talk about how oppression actually happens in China.

You may have noticed that if you used the subreddit as you did every day, you didn't notice much different. You could go about the day seeing some weird propaganda but as long as you didn't say anything directly addressing what was going on, and you didn't use any of the secret list of banned words, you were pretty much guaranteed to keep operating as usual.

If on the other hand, you spoke out against it or expressed dissatisfaction, you may have gotten banned or your comments censored. Similarly if you were part of a suspect group you received a ban even if you hadn't posted at all. In the case everyone in the ! ping WEEBS group was banned (although the ban was removed almost immediately), even though the members of those groups is a secret. They're not secret to us (although they would be if there was a way to do that), and similarly any of your "private" messages in China will be combed through and used to identify individuals that may prove problematic for the continued rule of the Chinese Communist Party. Don't go about talking poorly of Xi dada in your private WeChat groups, it may not turn out well for you.

In areas where these problematic people (read: ethnic minority) are more common, the police state stops being subtle even for "well behaved" citizens. The Wall Street Journal recently released a video of their investigation of Xinjiang, the homeland of the Muslim Uighur people, and it is jaw dropping. Police with guns patrolling the streets, military vehicles making rounds through minority neighborhoods, reeducation camps for those deemed most dangerous, it's all there.

And make no mistake, this is not a state that is happy sitting within its borders and oppressing only Chinese citizens, China has begun actively promoting their system of government as one superior to the Western Democratic model. They are also increasingly belligerent over contested territories, such as the border with India, the South China Sea, Taiwan, and many more. They are also backing up their threats with a military budget that has grown by more than 7% for 20 years now, and is only speeding up.

But there are people working to change this. The pro-democracy and human rights movement is small but very real and made up of brave people. You have all been wearing flairs of some of them today, so let's learn a bit about them.

Joshua Wong: Wong is one of the leading pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong. At the age of 21 he is the leader of the pro-democracy, pro-self determination party Demosisto. He is notable for being one of the candidates banned from running for election and even imprisoned by Beijing for his views.

Wu'er Kaixi: Original name Örkesh Dölet, he is an ethnic Uighur and one of the leaders of the student protests in Tiananmen Square, 1989, and partook in the world famous hunger strikes. He didn't eat or drink for more than a week and galvanized the nation, producing supporting protests all across the country. He fled abroad and today lives in Taiwan, where he continues to support the democracy movement.

Wang Quanzhang: Wang Quanzhang is a human rights lawyer who disappeared without a trace along with more than 200 other lawyers and activists during the infamous 709 incident. Wang was likely targeted for defending members of the Falun Gong group, a religious group (or cult, it's complicated) which faces some of the most severe repression of any group in China. Wang is the only person abducted during the 709 incident who has had no contact with the outside world since he disappeared. Others have been given formal jail sentences or released, but Wang is just gone.

Li Wenzu: Wang Quanzhang's wife. After Wang's abduction, she and many other wives and friends of the missing started actively protesting the government and demanding their release. To this day she and others picket outside of police stations and harass government officials for information about Wang and other victims of state oppression. As you may imagine, actively protesting and making a fuss for what has now been 995 days is not a safe thing to do in China.

Chen Guangcheng: Chen is a blind man self taught in the law. Often called "barefoot lawyer", a reference to the "barefoot doctors" (self taught peasants who worked in the villages to help curtail to effects of Mao Zedong's disastrous policies), he organized a class action lawsuit against authorities for their particularly strict enforcement of the one-child policy. After several years of house arrest, he, his wife and children escaped to the US embassy and today live in safety in New York. He continues to travel across the world and advocate for the forgotten victims of oppression in China to this day.

And of course because it is 2018 you can follow them on twitter: Joshua Wong, Wu'er Kaixi, Li Wenzu, Chen Guangcheng.

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have about Chinese oppression or the april fools joke