An activist who exposed the absurdity of local government policies to combat coronavirus has disappeared in China.

The 34-year-old artist Xiyuan Zhuji stopped updating his social media in October last year, days after he was featured in Reuters and BBC News. The loss is reported by VICE World News.

A friend of the activist told RFE/RL Asia that he has not been able to contact him since October, and that the police are refusing to provide any information, saying that it is only available to members of the Zhuji family. The artist's girlfriend told VICE World News that she wrote to Zhuji in January but has yet to receive a response — and called it unusual. Mutual acquaintances told her that a friend is in trouble, but she does not know the details.

Among Xiyuan Zhuji's most famous projects is a photo shoot during coronavirus testing. He put a miniature camera in his mouth and filmed for forty days as he was swabbed.

In another provocative work, the activist inserted more than a dozen medical needles into his hand. The publication notes that in this way he decided to show the pain that these needles cause people.

Another controversial project of Zhuji is a photo shoot with his father's skeleton. In pictures taken in 2019, he lies naked next to bones dug up from the grave.

Some of the artist's works fell under censorship in social networks. For example, a video titled "I want to breathe" was removed from Chinese WeChat, which showed a pair of breathing lungs in a cage. All this against the backdrop of coughing sounds during an asthma attack.

Speaking to VICE World News, Chinese human rights activist Zhou Fengsou, who now lives in the US, said he had no doubts that the activist's disappearance was linked to his artwork. “Few people in China dared to speak out against the pandemic measures, and Zhuji used his unique language to expose their absurdity,” he said.

China is known for its unprecedented response to the coronavirus. Even when the pandemic began to decline, the country maintained a strict quarantine that extended to entire cities. Against this background, a series of protests took place in the country.

Source: VICE World News

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