These friends don’t know each other’s real name. Why? It’s too dangerous

On an overcast December afternoon in Boston, 11 Chinese citizens arrived one by one at an underground parking garage — their clandestine meeting spot. And so they took safeguards, communicating on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, using security escorts to make sure they weren’t followed at their event and concealing the basic details of their lives — ages, jobs and Chinese hometowns — from one another. “We didn’t have time to worry about suspecting someone from our group that could be a threat or a security concern.” When Ellen went to pick up posters she had made at Staples, she spotted a man printing documents who appeared to be Chinese. “That just makes me feel like a normal person again.” Demonstrators light candles at the Tiananmen Memorial in Boston during a vigil for victims of a November high-rise fire in Urumqi, China. “We don’t really know each other’s real names or telephone numbers,” said Charlie, the moderator.