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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent

Chinese activist Teacher Li’s memecoin launch divides dissident community

File photo of the white paper protests over pandemic restrictions in November 2022, after a Beijing vigil for the victims of a fire in Urumqi, China.
White paper protests over pandemic restrictions in November 2022, after a Beijing vigil for the victims of a fire in Urumqi, China. The ‘Teacher Li’ account covered events that were censored inside China. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

On Monday, two parallel visions of Chinese activism appeared on X. One was a video showing a small protest outside a school in western Sichuan province. The other, from a related account, was a post promoting a memecoin and something it called the “$Li vision”, adding that “some of the greatest coins had a rocky start”.

The man behind both accounts is Li Ying, a Chinese art student turned activist based in Milan. His original X account, “Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher”, is one of the most prominent news feeds in the Chinese diaspora. To his nearly 2m followers, Li shares pictures and videos of happenings in China which would be censored inside the country.

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