The Ilham Tohti Initiative places three billboard trailers with various slogans reflecting Chinese atrocities against Uyghur people or protesting the CCP’s policy on genocide. The trailers all hold official license plates and are parked in alternating rotations across different parts of Munich, Germany in accordance with traffic laws every two weeks. The objective is to alert pedestrians and tourists to the real face of the Chinese regime.

Recently, one of the trailers was parked in close proximity to the Chinese Consulate General, until it was deliberately vandalized and damaged by unknown persons. An employee from a neighboring company noticed the damage and reported it to the local police station, which in turn filed a report against unknown person(s).

Our peaceful protest actions began ten years ago with parking a billboard trailer in front of the Chinese Consulate General, which provoked an immediate official complaint to the city’s police department. At the time the police summoned me (Enver Can), confirming that although the protest action with such a trailer was fully in line with the traffic laws, an official complaint was filed by the Chinese Consulate General on grounds of security concerns. What kind of items were being stored inside the trailer?

The police asked me what was stored inside the trailer, and whether I could show them the contents? Accordingly, I opened the door of the trailer to unveil our protest placards, which were used during various demonstrations and stored there when not in use. The police took notice and informed us that there was no security concern and that we were free to continue our protest actions in this manner. There was good media coverage of the event by Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Pogrom (the news bulletin of the GfbV).

Given the fact of growing Chinese long-arming in Germany, transnational repression and intimidation, the following question remains unanswered: Who could be behind the recent damage done to our billboard trailer in Munich?