Active censorship of this topic on social media, including the deletion of Weibo accounts of several outspoken commentators, have not dampened users' determination to keep the cause alive.

Ren Zhiqiang (@任志强), one of the most outspoken businessmen in China with almost 13 million followers, tweeted on Sina Weibo, "Freedom of press and freedom of speech are rights given to the society and the people by the constitution; they are also symbols of human rights and freedom. Yet they have become pipe dreams without the rule of law, being seriously distorted and restricted. If truth is not allowed to be spoken, would truth disappear?"

Li Chengpeng and Han Han, China's two most famous bloggers, both wrote articles in support of Southern Weekend. Li wrote, "We don't need tall buildings, but we need a newspaper that speaks the truth. We don't need the second highest GDP in the world, but we need a newspaper that speaks the truth. We don't need a fleet of aircraft carriers, but we need a newspaper that speaks the truth."

Even the web editors of China's biggest Internet portals, including Sina, Sohu and Netease, showed their support with a little subversive game. For example, when read vertically, the first characters of seemingly unrelated headlines on a Sina news page delivered the hidden message "Go Southern Weekend!"

Online action has translated into real-life protest. On Monday, hundreds of supporters held rallies outside of Southern Weekend's headquarter in Guangzhou, many bearing chrysanthemums, a flower believed to be able to endure harsh climates. Many were not afraid to show their faces while holding up signs and placards calling for freedom of press. Indeed, one girl held up two fingers in a victory sign as the police took photos of her, presumably as evidence for potential prosecution in the future.

User @吖小寒 reported from the front lines, "I have to say that the rally today was quite orderly. Some volunteers picked up trash at the scene. The police were quite patient too-they kept order without resorting to violence and did not take away anyone's placards. Even when everyone started shouting slogans about constitutionalism and democracy, the police just watched on the sidelines. Thousands of cell phones broadcast information from the scene in real time. I think we can definitely have democracy if everyone behaves like this!"

Lin Tianhong (@林天宏), a magazine editor, penned a Sina Weibo post that seemed to capture the sense that a tipping point may have been reached. He wrote,

Over the years, we journalists have been censored and silenced. We are used to it. We started to compromise and self-comfort. We became familiar with the explicit and not-so-explicit boundaries of our work, and we began to self-censor. We were like frogs being cooked in tepid water... We have gone too far, as if we have forgotten why we chose this profession to begin with. Why are we trying to protect our colleagues at Southern Weekend? For me there is only one reason, life is just a few decades long, how can you forget your innocence?





This post also appears at Tea Leaf Nation, an Atlantic partner site.