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A decade later, he was part of the sprawling censorship machine that suffocates China's cyberspace, tasked with stopping the spread of anything the Communist Party does not want its people to know about.
\"At first when I worked on this I didn't think much bigger because a job is a job,\" he said.
\"But deep inside I knew it was not aligned with my ethical standards. And once you work in this field for too long... the conflicts become stronger and stronger.\"
Now living in the heart of California's Silicon Valley<\/a>, Zeng is an affable 29-year-old who wears the weight of his past experience lightly.
Few people who have worked inside China's propaganda apparatus have told their stories. Even fewer are prepared to do so openly.
Profoundly shocking
<\/strong>
Zeng came of age with the internet.
Born in 1993 in southern Guangdong province, his first experience of computing was during elementary school, when his father brought home a PC.
What he found when he went online was astounding.
\"There was just like a whole new world that was waiting for me to explore,\" he told AFP.
The Chinese government's early attempts at web censorship were imperfect; VPNs provided access to subjects and information not discussed publicly.
In amongst the forbidden fruit was \"The Gate of Heavenly Peace\", a three-hour documentary on student protests in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.
What Zeng saw -- tanks and semi-automatic weapons wielded against unarmed students in a violent crackdown that left hundreds, perhaps thousands, dead -- was profoundly shocking.
\"It's such a huge, significant, historic event, but nobody ever told us about it, and you cannot search for it on the Chinese internet; that content is all erased,\" he said.
\"I just felt like there was a huge lie. A lot of history is covered up.\"
TikTok<\/a><\/strong>
Like other bright Chinese of his generation, Zeng spent his undergraduate years abroad, and returned to China with a degree in business administration from Estonia.
His tech savvy ultimately made him an attractive prospect for ByteDance<\/a>, an upstart Chinese social media company whose global-facing TikTok and inward-facing Douyin were taking on the might of Twitter and Facebook.
\"At first I was very excited because ByteDance is the only company that had a successful business outside of China,\" he said.
\"They have TikTok, which ruled the internet in the US and in Europe, so we were very proud of that. Most of the time only US internet companies ruled the world.\"
And it was a good job. Intellectually stimulating work with a $4,000 monthly salary that was well above the average in Beijing.
Off limits
<\/strong>
Zeng said he was part of a team that developed automated systems to filter content the company did not want on its platform.
These systems incorporated artificial intelligence to look at images, and to examine the sound that accompanied them, transcribing commentary and scouring for off-limits language.
If the system flagged a problem, Zeng said it would be passed to one of the thousands of human operatives who could delete the video or halt the livestream.
Mostly they were looking for the kind of thing any social media company might balk at -- self-harm, pornography, unauthorized advertising -- but also anything politically sensitive.
Some imagery was always off limits: pictures of tanks, candles or yellow umbrellas -- a symbol of protest in Hong Kong -- along with any criticism of President Xi Jinping<\/a> and other Communist Party leaders, according to Zeng.
He said guidance was handed down to ByteDance from the Cyberspace Administration of China, but supplemented by the company itself, ever wary of overstepping purposefully vague rules.
\"In China the line is blurred. You don't know specifically what will offend the government, so sometimes you will go beyond and censor more harshly,\" Zeng said, describing the company's position as \"like walking a tightrope\".
But the censor's list was fluid, and specific events would trigger an update.
Covid-19
<\/strong>
In early 2020, that update included Dr Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist in Wuhan who was trying to raise the alarm about a deadly new disease.
Li was silenced by authorities anxious to suppress early reports of what we now know as Covid-19.
\"When Dr Li Wenliang posted the news, this information got censored, and propagandists came out (on television) and said this doctor was spreading misinformation,\" said Zeng.
But when Li himself contracted Covid, Chinese internet users were incensed.
\"Everybody was refreshing Twitter or their Weibo<\/a> feed to check the latest news,\" Zeng said, explaining they were seeking the truth between rumors and official denials.
\"Many tweets or Weibo got deleted,\" he said.
\"I posted something like 'we want news freedom. No more censorship', and then my Weibo account also got censored.
\"At that moment, I felt like... I was a part of this ecosystem.\"
Li's death -- now one of more than 6.5 million worldwide -- was the final straw.
\"The night that Doctor Li Wenliang died, I felt that I couldn't do this any more,\" Zeng said.
He quit his job and moved back to his hometown, where he brushed up on his coding skills and applied to become a graduate student at the Silicon Valley campus of Northeastern University.
Brave idealist
<\/strong>
Zeng feels safe in California, and does not believe the Chinese government would try to silence him on US soil.
His parents, who remain in China, are more circumspect about the risks he faces for speaking out.
\"They just want me to be careful about what I say. They're worried that things might go wrong or I will be manipulated by the foreign media. But I'm not listening to them on this issue,\" he said.
\"I assume I won't be able to go back to China for at least 10 years.\"
But that cost is worth paying for Zeng, who describes the battle against censorship as a \"struggle of the people.\"
\"I think this is a huge issue (and we) should raise awareness of what's going on in China.\"
As Xi Jinping readies to be anointed for a record third term as president of an increasingly nationalist and strident Chinese government, Zeng feels gloomy.
\"In the short run, everybody is pessimistic. But I think everybody is optimistic in the long run for the future of China.
\"I think if you go back to our history, there are always some very brave idealists who will make the change when the moment comes.\"
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读到
十年后,他是庞大的审查机器的一部分,扼杀了中国的网络空间,负责阻止传播的任何共产党不希望人民知道。
“一开始当我在这工作我不认为大得多,因为工作是一份工作,”他说。
“但在内心深处我知道这是不符合我的道德标准。一旦你工作在这个领域太久……冲突变得越来越强。”
现在居住在加州的核心硅谷29岁,曾是一个和蔼可亲的人戴着他的过去经验的重量轻。
一些人已经在中国的宣传机器已经告诉他们的故事。准备这么做公开的就更少了。
深刻的令人震惊的
曾与互联网的时代。
1993年出生在广东省,他第一次经历的计算是在小学的时候,当他的父亲带回家一个电脑。
他发现当他上网是惊人的。
“就像一个全新的世界在等待我去探索,”他告诉法新社。
中国政府的早期尝试网络审查是不完美的;提供的vpn访问主题和信息不公开讨论。
在禁果是“天安门”,三个小时的纪录片在1989年6月天安门广场上的学生抗议活动。
曾看到什么——坦克和挥舞的半自动武器对付手无寸铁的学生的暴力镇压,导致数百人,也许数千人,死了,非常震惊。
“这是这样一个巨大的、重大的历史事件,但是没有人告诉我们,你不能在中国互联网上搜索它;这些内容都是抹去,”他说。
“我只是觉得这是一个巨大的谎言。很多历史掩盖。”
TikTok
像其他的中国的一代,曾花了他的本科年在国外,和回到中国工商管理学位爱沙尼亚。
他科技头脑最终让他成为了一个有吸引力的前景ByteDance中国社交媒体公司的暴发户global-facing TikTok和Douyin内部在Twitter和Facebook的可能。
“一开始我很兴奋因为ByteDance是唯一一家有一个成功的商业以外的中国,”他说。
“TikTok,统治互联网在美国和欧洲,所以我们都很自豪。大部分时间只有美国互联网公司统治世界。”
这是一个好工作。智力上的刺激与4000美元的月薪,在北京远高于平均水平。
限制
曾庆红说,他是一个团队的一部分,开发自动化系统过滤内容公司不希望在其平台上。
这些系统将人工智能看图像,并检查陪同他们的声音,抄录评论和禁止语言精练。
如果系统标记问题,曾表示,它将被传递给一个成千上万的人类成员谁能删除视频或停止转播画面。
主要是他们正在寻找的任何社交媒体公司可能不惜自残,色情、非法广告,而且任何政治敏感。
一些图像总是限制:坦克的照片,蜡烛或黄色雨伞——抗议在香港的象征——以及任何总统的批评习近平副主席和其他共产党领导人曾庆红。
他说指导传给ByteDance从中国的网络管理,但辅以公司本身,对超越故意模糊规则。
“在中国这条线是模糊的。你不知道具体什么得罪政府,所以有时你会超越和审查更严厉,“曾说,描述该公司的立场是“像走钢丝”。
但审查的列表是流体,特定事件将触发一个更新。
Covid-19
2020年初,更新包括李Wenliang博士,一位眼科医生在武汉试图发出警报致命的新疾病。
李被当局急于沉默抑制早期的报告我们现在知道Covid-19。
“当李博士Wenliang发布这个消息,这个信息审查,和宣传出来乐动扑克(电视上的),说这个医生是传播错误的信息,”曾说。
但当李Covid萎缩,中国互联网用户被激怒了。
“每个人都在刷新Twitter或他们的微博进料检查最新消息,“曾说,解释他们之间寻求真理的谣乐动扑克言,官方对此予以否认。
“许多微博或微博删除了,”他说。
“我发布类似“我们希望新闻自由。乐动扑克不再审查”,然后我的微博也得到了审查。
“那一刻,我觉得…我是一个生态系统的一部分。”
李的死亡——现在全世界超过650万的最后一根稻草。
“晚上,李医生Wenliang死了,我觉得我不能这样做,”曾说。
他辞掉了工作,回到了他的家乡,他在那里刷在他的编程技能和应用成为一个研究生在硅谷东北大学的校园。
勇敢的理想主义者
在加州曾感觉安全,不相信中国政府会试图平息他对我们的土壤。
他的父母,他留在中国,更谨慎的面临的风险说。
“他们只是想让我小心我说什么。他们担心的事情可能出错或我将被外国媒体。但我不听他们在这个问题上,”他说。
“我猜我不能回到中国至少10年。”
曾,但成本是值得付出的,他描述了对抗审查作为一个“人民的斗争。”
“我认为这是一个大问题(和我们)应该提高意识在中国发生了什么。”
像习近平决心膏的记录第三个总统任期越来越民族主义者和尖锐的中国政府,曾感到悲观。
“在短期内,每个人都是悲观的。但我认为每个人都乐观从长远来看,中国的未来。
“我认为如果你回到我们的历史,总有一些非常勇敢的理想主义者会改变时。”
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