Commentary An overestimation of the technical abilities of the Chinese police leads local activists to give up protecting themselves, including their electronic devices—putting themselves at even greater risks. Over the past few years, every so often I’d hear from a rights defender in China that local activists just won’t bother to use even the most basic safety measures to protect themselves, and just as important, to protect their colleagues. Such individuals believe that protecting data—on their phones and computers—is not possible. Most of them have spent months to years in China’s RSDL jails or in prison. But they are dangerously wrong and their fatalism is built upon the same wrongful premise as many Western politicians—that communist China has grown too strong and that there’s no point in countering its malign influence because it seems impossible. Thus, they feel powerless in the face of an overwhelming force. It’s shocking to many people outside of …