Masked Man Sets Off Flare Atop Chengdu Tower, Sparking Censorship Across China

As China’s economy continues to struggle with soaring unemployment and stagnant wages, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) tightening grip on public opinion, criticism, and so-called measures of “stability maintenance” have fueled a growing wave of resentment and anger.

On July 26, a young man wearing a mask scaled Chengdu’s tallest building, the main tower in Chengdu Greenland Center, to set off a signal flare from the rooftop as a sign of opposition to the CCP’s heady-handed grip on public discourse. Videos of the stunt spread rapidly online before being censored and scrubbed by China’s stringent control censors. The man’s current status is unknown.

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The now-viral video first surfaced on the Chinese platform Douyin (a popular blogging and social media app akin to TikTok), showing the masked man climbing, in the rain, to the top of “Shufeng 468,” where he ignited a red signal flare that stood out against the night sky.

Netizens react

After the footage reached overseas platforms, users on X and other social media reacted with a flurry of comments both in support and awe: “It’s over — this is exactly what the Party fears most!” “Are you trying to scare the officials to death?” “Is this a call for a people’s revolution?” “They deleted it across the entire internet — the CCP must be afraid people will follow his lead!”

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Other commenters were more reflective. “Climbing to the top of that tower was already impressive. Putting on the V mask elevated it. Firing the flare took it to another level entirely,” wrote one user, while another noted, “Beneath the mask isn’t just flesh and blood, it’s a belief. They can kill one man, but they can’t stop the next person from putting on the same mask. The spark never dies.”

Some netizens noted that the mask worn by the man may not have been from the popular film V for Vendetta, but rather the mask worn by robbers in the popular Netflix series Money Heist (“La Casa de Papel” in Spanish). Either way, commenters noted that the mask worn by the unknown man carries the same symbolic weight of forming resistance against injustice and oppression.

A symbol of resistance

The 2006 dystopian political thriller V for Vendetta tells the story of a masked vigilante known only as “V,” who single-handedly resists a totalitarian government in a future England, and ultimately ignites a nationwide revolution. Though the film’s box office performance was modest and reviews were mixed, it has since become a global cultural phenomenon. Both on screen and in real life, the “V” mask has come to symbolize resistance to fascism, tyranny, and defiance against overreaching power.

V for Vendetta was initially banned in China, only airing on state broadcaster CCTV in 2012 before being banned again shortly after. Despite this, the mask has since become a universal symbol of resistance worldwide — worn by participants in Hong Kong’s 2019 anti-extradition movement and adopted as the official emblem of the global hacker collective Anonymous.

Independent media commentator Li Muyang, speaking on the program News Insight, said that if the Chengdu incident had been a mere prank, Chinese authorities would not have gone to such lengths to scrub it from the entire internet. “The fact that they reacted so nervously shows just how politically sensitive they consider this act; they’re afraid it will strike a chord across society,” Li said.

Viral video was quickly deleted

The video quickly garnered 11,000 likes, nearly 10,000 reposts, and over 500 comments before its removal from China’s internet. Li argued this reaction shows that resistance against authoritarian rule is beginning to germinate. “What’s truly frightening for Xi Jinping’s authorities isn’t the individual act itself, but the massive social response it triggers,” he said.

Li pointed to a recurring pattern, from the White Paper Movement to various public protests, in which one person’s action inspires others to follow, sometimes giving rise to entirely new forms of resistance. “The sheer volume of likes, reposts, and comments already speaks for itself,” he said. “Amid economic depression, soaring youth unemployment, deepening social tensions, and a growing undercurrent of frustration, the vast majority of people quietly support resistance against tyranny, and that is precisely what authoritarian rulers fear most.”