Protests spread across China amid zero-COVID anger

“The Communist Party, step down. Xi Jinping, step down.” Those were the slogans chanted by hundreds of protesters in China’s commercial capital, Shanghai, on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, as they gathered to demand the Chinese government end the strict pandemic control measures that have been imposed on several cities across the world’s second-largest economy.

The protest is part of a nationwide response to Beijing’s strict “zero-COVID strategy,” after a deadly fire in the western Xinjiang region killed at least 10 people earlier this week. Though authorities in Xinjiang have opened up some neighborhoods in the regional capital Urumqi, where the deadly fire took place, public anger and discontent have already spread across China.

One Shanghai protester, who asked to only be identified as Jason due to safety concerns, told DW that he decided to join the protest in Shanghai after reading about the event at 10 p.m. on Saturday night. “When I arrived at the scene around 23:40, police had already sealed off the roads leading to the protest site, and a group of protesters was surrounded by a small number of policemen, who were urging them to leave,” he said.

While some protesters remained calm and quiet, Jason said, others were chanting slogans calling for the Chinese leader Xi Jinping to step down. “There were people in the crowd who were suspected to be plainclothes police that was reportedly creating divisions among protesters,” Jason added.

COVID-19 cases hit new record in China

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Another Shanghai demonstrator, who asked to be named Andy, told DW that most protesters joined to urge the government to end the strict lockdowns, which some believe was the main reason why the deadly fire in Xinjiang took 10 lives. “I think the only demand in all the recent mass protests is to lift the ban and return to normal life,” he said. “I think the demand for regime change is an idea held by a very small number of people.”

Some experts say the protests reflect the impact of China’s COVID-19 policies, which have restricted many people’s freedom of movement and freedom of expression. “The Urumqi fire shows that it’s now threatening people’s personal safety,” said Kai Ong, researcher at Amnesty International. “Previously, people already have problems accessing healthcare, but now it has gone to the extent that people are losing their lives because of the policies.”

Protests effect in doubt

As well as Shanghai, protests have taken place on college campuses in major cities like Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chengdu, with protesters demanding an end to the lockdowns while referencing the protest slogan “I don’t want PCR test. I want freedom” featured on a banner in Beijing last month.

Despite the momentum across the country, Andy doubted that the protests will change the government’s course. “From my experience and my knowledge of the Chinese Communist Party, protests like this would be quickly dismantled and won’t achieve the goal of ending lockdowns,” he told DW.

Jason agreed with Andy’s concerns, adding that since people in China lack tools like Telegram to effectively organize protests, the scenes on Saturday were chaotic and lacked unity. He warned that Saturday night’s protest may push the Chinese government to adopt more heavy-handed measures.

“Last night’s demonstration definitely created a very strong sense of threat to the Chinese government and they could impose stricter controls on Shanghai and on China as a whole,” he told DW. “Most people were not aware of the risks of this demonstration, and the few who were aware had left early by 2 a.m. or 3 a.m.”

‘This time really feels different’

While some protesters expressed doubt about the durability of the protests, others in China think the protests have generated some optimism for them, as the scale of the protest exceeded many Chinese people’s expectations. “I thought I would never hear the slogans that were shouted in my life,” said a Shanghai resident, who asked to be named Emma.

“In the beginning, when people were leaving angry comments on the internet, I was still pessimistic that it would be the same as before, which is that the comments would be deleted from the internet the next day and that people would soon forget about it,” she told DW.

“But I didn’t expect the protests online to be endless, and that people would take to the street at night in Shanghai. I was really, really moved. I felt that this time was really different. Even if it was only for one night, it was still very different from before,” Emma added.

Ong from Amnesty international said that the scale of the protests could push the Chinese government to review their existing COVID-19 policies. “We have seen the local government in Urumqi claiming that they have had the local outbreak under control,” she said. “The protests push the government to immediately give a response but I think it’s unlikely for the central government to respond to calls for regime change.”

Hours after protesters dispersed in the early morning on Sunday in Shanghai, they returned to the same area in the afternoon, continuing to call for an end to the lockdown while putting up pieces of white papers as they protest. “Yesterday’s protest has ignited the torch and today more torches will be lit up. The world will become brighter,” one protester surnamed Lin told DW. “The whole of China is lighting up torches today.”

However, reports of arrests have come out of Shanghai as Lin said the police are trying to push protesters out of the main protest area, as physical confrontation took place between young protesters and the police. “Many roads leading up to the main protest area have been blocked and police have made some arrests as they try to push protesters away,” he said.

In one video widely circulating on social media platforms, a man giving a speech in the middle of the road while holding a flower is suddenly pushed to one side by a group of police and arrested. Even though some protesters try to intervene, they fail to get the police to release the protester.

Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told DW that the Chinese authorities seem to have been caught off guard by the protests, and he thinks Beijing may expect the energy and frustration to peter out. “I suppose there is a chance of a crackdown should events continue,” he said.

“The Chinese Communist Party and especially under Xi is far less tolerant of protests and apparent challenges to their authority. Things are still unfolding, and clear information is harder to come by at this point,” he added.

Edited by: Ben Knight

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/protests-spread-across-china-amid-zero-covid-anger/a-63906795?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf