TAIPEI – More than a year after two amateur computer coders were taken by police from their Beijing homes, they are set to be tried Tuesday in a case that illustrates the Chinese government's growing online censorship and heightened sensitivity to any deviation from the official narrative on its COVID-19 response.
Authorities have not said specifically why Chen Mei, 28, and Cai Wei, 27, were arrested in April last year, so friends and relatives can only guess.
They believe it was because the two men had set up an online archive to store articles deleted by censors and a related forum where users could skirt real-name registration requirements to chat anonymously.