The Sprawling Radio Network That China’s Firewall Can’t Stop

Locked inside the crowded Chinese prison, blind lawyer Chen Guancheng hid his most treasured possession from the guards—inside a single serve milk box. A pocket-size shortwave radio. For three years, Mr. Chen looked forward to the hours after curfew. With a blanket wrapped over his head and the radio’s metal antenna parallel to his body, he lay still as the vibrating device under his ear breath to life a world outside the prison wall. Petitioners, protesters, human rights abuses, a grassroots movement to cut ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—in that tiny murmuring voice, he saw them all. He was free....