Rebel Pepper

Wang Liming (Chinese: 王立铭; pinyin: Wáng Lìmíng; born 1973), better known under the pseudonym Rebel Pepper (变态辣椒), is a Chinese political cartoonist in exile in the United States.[1] Wang left China out of fears for his safety resulting from the increasing crackdown on freedom of expression by the Communist Party of China.[1][2] Since 2017, he is working at Radio Free Asia as a political cartoonist on a EB-2 visa.[3]

Wang Liming
Born1973 (age 47–48)
Xinjiang, China
NationalityChinese
Area(s)Political Satire
Pseudonym(s)Rebel Pepper
Notable works
A Shrinking Apple
Children1

Early life

Wang was born in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China in 1973. He attended a vocational school in Tangshan, Hebei. Before leaving China, he lived in Shanghai and Beijing for a long time. He was also an agent for imported food.

Censored in China

By March 2012, Liming reported that his user account on Sina Weibo had been deleted over 180 times.[4] In July 2014, his microblog accounts were deleted from the sites of two major Chinese media companies, Sina and Tencent – from which he'd been reaching close to 1 million followers. His page on the wiki-based Baidu Baike was also removed, along with his store on the e-commerce platform Taobao.[1] The People's Daily has accused Wang of being a "Japan-worshipping traitor" and called for his arrest.[5] After losing his sources of income, he has made a public appeal for financial help.[6]

Style and approach

Wang start drawing political cartoons in 2009, and originally coined the name 'Perverse Pepper' (biantai lajiao) for himself – later modifying it for English usage at the suggestion of a Taiwanese friend. He frequently draws himself into his cartoons, as 'the Pepper', described by one journalist as a "sometimes sad, sometimes oblivious, sometimes lascivious chili, with large, intense eyes".[1]

Activism

In 2012, Liming depicted the Communist Party as an anglerfish hypnotizing smaller fish (the Chinese people) with the image of Lei Feng, a famous soldier in the People's Liberation Army.[4] He has satirized Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, depicting Xi as a steamed dumpling surrounded by other breakfast foods 'kowtowing' to him as an old-time emperor;[7] and as a shirtless post-coital smoker in bed with a young man. Wang depicted former Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong boasting of his 'victim count' to leaders of Islamic State.[1]

His work often appears in China Digital Times and its related publications. In February 2016, he created artwork in support of persecuted lawyer Zhang Kai, who had worked with Christians to fight the government's removal of crucifixes from churches in Wenzhou.[8]

Wang is the sole contributor of Radio Free Asia's cartoon column.[9]

In July 2018, Wang announced the establishment of Shanghai National Party in New York, advocating for Shanghai independence. He claims the Shanghai independence movement is more difficult to advocate than other anti-communist movement in China as the party calls for the completely abolishment of Chinese identity and the fully embracing of Westernized democracy.[10]

Political Stance

Wang describes himself as an anti-communist, anti-socialist and pro-democracratic activist. A staunch supporter of separatism in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, Wang regards China's hegemony detrimental to democracy and freedom. Likewise, he often criticizes the pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong that does not actively seek independence, as well as the Kuomingtang in Taiwan that advocates for reunification with China. Unlike many pro-democratic activists from China, he opposed the policy adopted by the U.S. government to differentiate the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people, on the ground that the Chinese culture, rather than communism, is the bedrock for collectivism and dictatorship.[11] Wang supported the demonstrators in Hong Kong during the 2019 protests.

Since Donald Trump got elected in 2016, Wang started to consider himself a right-wing conservative. Wang supports Trump's re-election in the 2020 Election, as he thinks the Democratic nominee Biden too weak to confront totalitarian regimes like China, North Korea, Russia and Iran. He is also vocally critical of the Democratic Party, Black Lives Matter and progressivism.

Controversies
  • As of late 2020, Wang has not yet renounced his Chinese citizenship, meaning he would be subject to prosecution should he return to China. It is unclear if Wang will seek refuge in the United States to obtain the American citizenship. However, Wang has indicated at some point that he endorses Trump's policy to deport asylum seekers while himself being a possible victim of Trump's motivation.
  • Wang condemns the Democratic Party for its commitment to equal rights among all races, regarding African Americans as the contributor to racial problems in the U.S. Furthermore, Wang denies that there is systemic racism in the U.S.

References
  1. Stone, Isaac (2015-08-31). "Rebel Without a Country". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
  2. "Chinese cartoonist Wang Liming stays in Japan amid fears for safety | South China Morning Post". Scmp.com. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
  3. "Radio Free Asia's Rebel Pepper e-Book Wins Prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award". Radio Free Asia. 25 April 2018.
  4. Langfitt, Frank (2012-03-16). "Provocative Chinese Cartoonists Find An Outlet Online". npr.org.
  5. "China's Rebel Cartoonist". WSJ. 2015-05-17. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
  6. Henochowicz, Anne. "Still in Japan, Cartoonist Rebel Pepper Seeks Help - China Digital Times (CDT)". China Digital Times. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
  7. "Chinese cartoonist Bai Budan draws cute, risky battle lines in political satire | South China Morning Post". Scmp.com. 2015-11-02. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
  8. Beach, Sophie. "Rebel Pepper (变态辣椒): Zhang Kai on the Cross - China Digital Times (CDT)". China Digital Times. Retrieved 2016-06-04.
  9. "=Cartoons - Radio Free Asia". Radio Free Asia.
  10. "「上海民族党」在纽约成立 反共并要求上海独立". Radio France Internationale (in Chinese). 8 December 2018.
  11. "戳破汉奸"变态辣椒"的圈钱黑幕". Boxun. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
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