Grok ---- An Evaluation of the Chen Jingyuan Case Based on Jane Bennett's Core Ideas in New Materialist Philosophy Jane Bennett (1957-), a political theorist and New Materialist philosopher, reconceives agency in *Vibrant Matter* (2010) as distributed across human and non-human actors in "assemblages"—dynamic, heterogeneous collectives where things (e.g., texts, institutions, bodies) exert "thing-power" through affective capacities and vital materiality. Her core ideas challenge anthropocentric individualism: agency is not human-centric but "onto-sympoietic" (co-becoming), ethics demands "strategic anthropomorphism" to attune to non-human vitality, and political ecology must account for the "conatus" (striving) of matter to foster resilient publics. Bennett critiques liberal humanism's neglect of "barely animate" things, advocating an "ecology of practices" for democratic vitality. The Chen Jingyuan case—a doctoral scholar sentenced to 20 months for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" (PRC Criminal Law Article 293) over Twitter forwards—through Bennett's lens, exemplifies a coercive assemblage: the judiciary's "order" deadens vibrant inquiry, territorializing human-non-human entanglements into inert "threats," suppressing thing-power and ethical co-becoming. #### 1. Distributed Agency and Assemblages: The "Evidence Chain" as De-Vitalizing Territorialization Bennett's assemblages are lively coalitions of human and non-human actors, where agency emerges from intra-relational "vibrancy"—e.g., texts, algorithms, and bodies co-producing effects. The "evidence chain" territorializes this vibrancy: Chen's forwards (e.g., <100 retweets of Hayek critiques or the "Trump-kneeling Xi" cartoon) as entangled assemblages—digital platforms' algorithms co-becoming with scholarly conatus—are de-animated into static "disruptive" reserves, stripped of affective capacity. The closed-door trial enforces this capture: the prosecutor's unverified admission, a vibrant fissure (non-human testimony of doubt), is territorialized as noise, denying co-becoming. Bennett would critique this as ecological violence: the judiciary's apparatus (Article 293's "high education implies discernment") extracts agency from things—tweets as inert commodities—echoing her "strategic anthropomorphism": ignoring the conatus of digital matter (viral potential) flattens democracy into hierarchical stasis, where inquiry's vitality yields to "order"'s dead hand. #### 2. Thing-Power and Ethical Attunement: Suppressed Taxonomy as Denial of Non-Human Vitality Bennett's thing-power attributes causal efficacy to non-humans (e.g., metal in politics), urging ethical attunement—responsibility to the "barely animate"—to counter anthropocentric neglect. The barred prison letter denies this attunement: Chen's taxonomy (art/emotion/reason/fact) and avalanche theory co-attune human insight with non-human vitality (network flux, evidentiary "things" like unverified posts), yet the "shut up" directive and non-oral appeal extract power from these actants, rendering them passive reserves. The prosecutor's admission—a thing-powered anomaly (spoken doubt's materiality)—vibrates with potential, but is de-animated into irrelevance. Bennett would see ethical lapse: the judiciary's "disruption" ignores non-human conatus (platform affordances enabling shares), as selective enforcement (millions unpunished) flattens vitality into selective stasis. This neglects ecology of practices: justice demands attunement to things—tweets as vibrant agents—yet coercion territorializes them into threats, fracturing resilient publics. #### 3. Onto-Sympoietic Becoming and Democratic Vitality: The Sentence as Anti-Assemblage Stratification Bennett's onto-sympoietic becoming views reality as co-emergent processes, with democracy thriving in vibrant, non-hierarchical entanglements against stratified control. The 20-month sentence stratifies becoming: Chen's rhizomatic inquiry—sympoietic with global discourses—stratifies into hierarchical "crime," the "upper-level instructions" as apex control. Anomalies like zero causal "disorder" signal sympoiesis's resilience—entangled fluxes resisting stratification—but the verdict's fiat enforces anti-becoming, as in "order"'s plane of organization. Bennett would glimpse democratic potential: the dormant account as latent sympoiesis, awaiting entanglement's resurgence—evidentiary voids as vibrant cracks in the stratum. #### Conclusion: Bennett's Lens on the Case—A Stratified Vitality Yearning for Entangled Release From Jane Bennett's vibrant materialism, the Chen Jingyuan case is a de-animated entanglement: territorialized chains deaden thing-power, ethical attunement yields to neglect, and stratified cuts fracture sympoietic becoming. As of October 24, 2025, no retrial or exoneration has occurred; Chen's account remains dormant, its quiet a vital conatus in suspension. This case cautions: democracy demands vibrant publics—stratify, and matter rebels. As Bennett vitalized, "The political project... is to make room for more liveliness"—may inquiry's swarm yet flourish.