Brick Lane Chinese Communist Party slogan graffiti removed - but more graffiti appears

Graffiti referencing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was painted over after provoking strong criticism about the regime’s human rights record, but more responses have been added.

Along nearly 100 metres of Brick Lane, 24 bold red characters were painted over the weekend, with slogans from CCP ideology.

The intention of the artists remains ambiguous, with their position on Xi Jinping’s regime unclear.

But they attracted strong opposition, with people visiting the neighbourhood to add their own responses, referencing human rights abuses against the Uyghur people, campaigns to free Taiwan and Tibet, and the Tiananmen Square massacre.

By Monday morning Tower Hamlets Council had removed the graffiti, but the council’s workers may have to return.

‘All the principles are right’

On Tuesday, LondonWorld met a man who had used spray paint to add an unambiguous slogan to the wall: “F*** the CCP.”

He said: “I was reading the news online and I saw a thing saying some Chinese students had come down and written a load of pro-Chinese propaganda on the wall. All the principles are right - socialism etc - but it feels like it’s a propaganda thing driven by the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, to try and make themselves look good when they’re anything but good.”

Tower Hamlets Council

A Tower Hamlets Council spokesperson said: “We are committed to preventing and removing unwanted and illegal graffiti in our borough, and regularly clean and paint over graffiti on public streets, walls, and street furniture. Graffiti is criminal damage and an offence which carries a fixed penalty notice fine starting at £80. The current cost of removing graffiti in our borough is upwards of £400,000 every year.

“Our CCTV operators alerted police and council enforcement officers as the graffiti was in progress and our environmental cleansing team attended Brick Lane to remove the graffiti in line with our graffiti policy.”

Brick Lane artists

According to the BBC, Wang Hanzheng, one of the creators who goes by the artist name Yi Que, claimed the piece “didn’t have much political meaning”. In an Instagram post, Mr Wang wrote in Chinese saying the group used the political elements as a coat “to discuss different environments”.

“In the name of freedom and democracy, it illustrates the cultural centre of the West, this is London’s freedom… Decolonize the false freedom of the West with the construction of socialism, let’s see what happens,” the post reads.

Mr Wang told the BBC “there is no question” that the characters are “not only goals of China, but common goals for the world”.

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