Thunberg hits out at China for arresting 17-yr-old climate activist Ou Hongyi in Shanghai

Teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg on Sunday lashed out at China for arresting a 17-year-old climate activist in Shanghai. China's 'first climate striker' Ou Hongyi, was detained on Friday at Shanghai's main shopping district, according to a media report. Taking to twitter Thunberg wrote, 'Activism is not a crime'. She opined that peacefully protesting for the survival of the planet should never be illegal and further extended her solidarity and gratitude to activists everywhere who are being arrested.

'Activism is not a crime'

READ | Greta Thunberg and youth climate protests make a return

The 17-year old, Hongyi in her Instagram post on Sunday said that she and three other protesters were detained after three hours of silent protests. Adding further Ou said that she was stopped in Nanjing Road and was taken to a nearby police station and was released hours later. She also posted a picture on Twitter on Sunday of a room that looked like an interrogation room.

"Billions of people will die, and children will die while parents lose their jobs. Nonviolent civil disobedience climate movement is the only candle in the darkness to give us the slightest hope," she said.

"We just went on the global climate strike day, with four people, advocates, on Nanjing Road which is a very symbolic place in Shanghai, and we are just arrested and interrogated for about two hours and I just came out of the police station," she said in a video after her release, according to media the media report.

Hongyi further revealed that she was forced to write a 'self-criticism letter', a forced admission of guilt used by Chinese police to intimidate the activists. "Government is the only institution that has the ability to protect its people but it failed," she wrote in her tweet. Hongyi's protest comes two days after Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged at the United Nations General Assembly that China would achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Hongyi has also skipped classes for a week last year to protest outside government buildings in her hometown of Guilin, just like Thunberg.

READ | Greta Thunberg's foundation to donate €150,000 to climate change activists in Africa

'Environment campaigns hard to run in Xi era'

Andreas Fulda, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham's school of politics and international relations in the UK said that the campaigns for the environment have been hard to run since Xi came to power.
"During the Hu and Wen era it was still possible for environmental NGOs to run campaigns, such as against wasteful energy consumption or reckless dam building in southern China," Fulda said. Since Xi has come to power, the available space for Chinese civil society has shrunk dramatically, Fulda added. (With inputs from ANI) (Image AP)
READ | Greta Thunberg confirms worldwide release of 'I am Greta' after Venice Film Fest screening

READ | Greta Thunberg's film premiers at Venice Film Festival, shows her never-seen-before side