Gong Kai, celebrating his first Chinese New Year on free soil, expressed his gratitude to the circumvention software that helped to transform him from a “brainless party loyalist” to a lively young man “seeking freedom.”
Indoctrination
He said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the indoctrination of the populace as early as school age.Mr. Gong said during school, his teacher constantly talked about how America, harboring a never-dying heart against the Chinese, has aimed to peacefully transform China, the CCP’s glorious history and achievements, and the humiliations of modern Chinese history. “Influenced by these teachings, I was essentially a ‘Pink’,” he added.
The word “pink” describes a young Chinese who maintains an aggressively patriotic stance for the CCP, also known as a party loyalist.
He recounted one incident in fourth grade, which he deeply regretted.
During a lesson on the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, his classmate whispered to him: “China was attacked because it was weak.”
Feeling it was treasonous, the young Gong reported his classmate’s remark to the teacher. Consequently, the boy got a time-out for the entire class.
“The teacher warned him sternly: Uttering those words is an insult to our ancestors and a grave attack on the new democracy earned through the sacrifice of revolutionary martyrs,” Mr. Gong recalled.
Mr. Gong found himself haunted by his conscience as he grew older. In his second year of high school, he particularly made a visit to his classmate and apologized.
“At that time, I felt bad for attacking others in such a way, though I couldn’t pinpoint why.” Although the classmate had no recollection of the incident, Mr. Gong couldn’t find peace without expressing his remorse. “Now I see it as a form of Communist indoctrination, a violation of human nature,” he concluded.
Breaking Through the Firewall
In college, Mr. Gong and his seven other dormmates were searching for software to breach the CCP’s Great Firewall, which blocks many websites. “Someone discovered Freegate and Ultrasurf while downloading foreign films. Additionally, we found mirror sites. This marked our first encounter with a means to bypass censorship,” he said.Since then, their life in the dorm entered an entirely new realm. They would eagerly delve into each discovery.
“Over time, we have all enjoyed and engaged in bypassing online censorship in the dorm. Occasionally, when Freegate provided particularly high speeds, all eight of us would access the New Tang Dynasty Television website. Whether it was live streams or recorded content, we preferred the live broadcasts.”
After graduation, getting online information through bypassing censorship became a must in his daily life.
Despite experimenting with various circumvention tools, he maintained that the Freegate software was the safest and most reliable. “Many paid software deteriorated in performance after just six months of use. They’re not as effective as the free Freegate,” Mr. Gong asserted.
Freegate was jointly launched by Dynamic Internet Technology and The Epoch Times. The program can hide users’ real IP addresses. There is no need to install it, and it leaves no record on computers.
As an e-commerce businessman, Mr. Gong also introduced Freegate to his customers. He often compiled and distributed free circumvention software packages, including Freegate, UltraSurf, and Saifeng, to his customers. He said, “Many of them were young academics requiring circumvention for writing papers or conducting research.”
However, the environment in China grew more restrictive, and slogans explicitly declaring that using VPNs was illegal and a criminal offense were widely seen on university campuses. Sensing that his risks were increasing, he quickly decided to seek refuge in the United States and left China without hesitation.
He reflected that life inside China was a closed trap, and he yearned for the Communist Party’s downfall.
“I owe a debt of gratitude to Freegate, it served as one of my primary guides to enlightenment. Through this software, I began to glimpse the world beyond, initiating a transformative journey and granting me a newfound sense of freedom,” said Mr. Gong.
