On Friday, U.S. prosecutors charged a Chinese executive of video conferencing giant Zoom. His crime is allegedly helping the Chinese regime censor Zoom’s American users.
One of the Zoom users who was censored said it’s an important breakthrough.
Zhou Fengsuo, President of Humanitarian China, said: “This is very uplifting news. It really cheers me up.”
The Justice Department didn’t reveal the company’s name in its announcement. But Zhou confirmed that the FBI told him the charge over the phone after the announcement was released. Also during the past several months, Zhou has been providing the FBI with information about the Zoom censorship incident.
“The FBI agents and I had many conversations about this, both over the phone and face-to-face interviews,” said Zhou.
Zhou was referring to an incident this May. At the time, he helped co-organize an online event hosted on Zoom. The event was to commemorate June 4, 1989. On this day, Chinese troops moved into Tiananmen Square and fired at unarmed protestors asking for democracy. The topic remains taboo in China.
Zhou is one of the survivors and is now in the United States. He said a survivor who’s still in China joined the meeting as well. That person was arrested after the meeting and later released. But a week after the meeting, at the request of the Chinese regime, Zoom shut down their account.
The person who’s now charged is the one who helped shut down their account. His name is Jin Xinjiang. He’s the main contact person between Zoom and Chinese intelligence officials.
If China wants to end certain virtual meetings hosted on Zoom, Jin is one of the persons they go to. The Justice Department said Jin and others ended four Zoom meetings commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre this year. He also provides China with Zoom users’ information. In some cases, names and email addresses of Zoom’s overseas users. Jin is based in China.
Zhou said the FBI told him there would be new developments in the case.