Chapter 7: Coming from a Position of Strength

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The online commenters’ introductory meeting was held in the evening, in a small study room at the university’s library.

There were 8 people, including Dou Dou at the meeting. All except Dou Dou were males. Dou Dou, again, was in a loose floral-patterned dress. And this evening, she wasn’t wearing makeup. For a split second, Lijian didn’t even recognize her.

Dou Dou, standing with perfect posture, stalked toward the head of the table. Carrying herself like a TV show host, she called the meeting to order, presented each participant with a sparkly new smartphone and a sparkly new laptop. She told them that each device was equipped with a VPN, and then launched a PowerPoint presentation on how to use the VPN, as well as showed them how to log into their database, where articles were assigned, comments logged, memes and talking points distributed.

Then Dou Dou demonstrated. Her laptop hooked up to a projector, she logged on to Twitter. There were gasps in the room, jaws gaping as the group saw the forbidden foreign website for the first time. They’d seen screenshots of tweets but never had seen the real, live site. Lijian felt his stomach clench.

Dou Dou brought up a tweet listed by their database. An English language tweet posted by a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. Then Dou Dou demonstrated to them how she’d respond, word by word, along the lines of the talking points. Afterward, she showed them how to post the tweet.

Then it was time to get down to business. A trial run. The 7 boys arched in front of their glowing laptops, all of them tweeting on the same post that Dou Dou had just replied to. They all followed the talking points yet reworded their statements.

The boys’ eyes bulged as they tapped furiously at their keyboards, and Dou Dou circled the room, hands clasped behind her back, watching the crew work.