Protests against China’s stringent COVID-19 containment strategy raged across the nation for a third consecutive day on Sunday, with participants calling on President Xi Jinping to step down. Demands for democracy and the downfall of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have been intensified by a deadly fire in an apartment building in Xinjiang, where residents died after they were locked in from the outside due to strict Zero-COVID measures.
Protests broke out in the cities of Wuhan, Guangzhou, Lanzhou, and Chengdu yesterday, while students in multiple university campuses across the country, including Xi’s alma mater, the prestigious Tsinghua University, gathered to demonstrate over the weekend.
In Beijing, almost 1,000 people joined two different demonstrations on Monday and refused to disperse from the 3rd Ring Road near the Liangma River.
Protests have spread to Xi Jinping’s alma mater Tsinghua, where a student said:
— Linda Lew 刘凌达 (@Lindadalew) November 27, 2022
If we don’t speak up due to the fear of the [dark regime?], I think our people will be disappointed. As a Tsinghua student, I’d regret this for the rest of my life.
Crowd called out don’t be scared! https://t.co/GV8MCvuNyw
“We don’t want masks, we want freedom. We don’t want COVID tests, we want freedom,” they chanted, as well as “Don’t want dictatorship, want democracy!”
“Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping,” protestors chanted during protests in Shanghai early on Sunday, according to witness reports and videos posted on social media. By evening, hundreds of people gathered in the area, with some holding up blank placards as a sign of protest.
Just a day prior, the megacity held a vigil in remembrance of victims of the apartment fire, wherein citizens rallied against Xi’s zero-Covid strategy. Crowds could be heard chanting calls for lockdowns to be lifted.
Lots of police rolling in. Trying to get people to go home. Chanting continues
— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) November 27, 2022
They’re closing in trying to push people to disperse pic.twitter.com/eXFn1pNWa4
Law enforcement was present in high numbers on the city’s Wulumuqi Road, which is named after the Xinjiang city of Urumqi, to control any actions of civil disobedience. Police also attempted to break up the demonstrations with the help of pepper spray; dozens of protesters were arrested and driven away in a bus.
Similarly, videos posted online from Chengdu on Sunday show a large group of people holding blank placards and chanting “We don't want lifelong rulers. We don’t want emperors.” The chant is a reference to Xi, who was recently ‘re-elected’ for a historic third term, and is expected to rule for life.
Meanwhile, videos showed that in the central city of Wuhan, where the COVID-19 pandemic originated, hundreds of protestors destroyed metal barricades, overturned COVID testing tents, and called for an end to lockdowns.
Chengdu: people raise blank sheets of paper (a protest against censorship) and shout, "Give me freedom or give me death" https://t.co/DcKN1dbWgP
— Alice Su 蘇奕安 (@aliceysu) November 27, 2022
Protests, which are largely unheard of in mainland China since Xi took office ten years ago, have become more frequent in recent months as public frustration mounts over his administration’s inflexible public health strategy, which has dragged on for almost three years.
After a fire broke out in a high-rise residential building in Xinjiang’s capital city of Urumqi on Thursday, videos surfacing on social media triggered accusations that search and rescue efforts had been hampered due to the tough containment measures, which killed 10 people.
Following this, city officials abruptly held a news conference early Saturday and denied that zero-COVID measures had affected the death toll, saying it was due to “residents’ weak survival skills.”
Seemingly spontaneous protest converging again at Urumqi Road in Shanghai, despite heavy police presence. People are shouting “let them go 放人!” 😮 Apparently in reference to those arrested at previous protests. pic.twitter.com/JjOvtcqFnr
— Emily Feng 冯哲芸 (@EmilyZFeng) November 27, 2022
Much of the city’s 4 million residents have been living under one of the country’s longest lockdowns and have been barred from leaving their houses for over 100 days. In fact, security forces have been seen bolting or locking residents’ doors and gates from the outside so as to prevent them from escaping.
“I’m here because I love my country, but I don’t love my government ... I want to be able to go out freely, but I can’t. Our COVID-19 policy is a game and is not based on science or reality,” a protester in Shanghai’s financial hub told Reuters.
Alluding to the rarity of public opposition to the Communist Party, one protestor told AP that “Everyone thinks that Chinese people are afraid to come out and protest, that they don’t have any courage.”
Unlock Xinjiang pic.twitter.com/w0dJXoxugT
— Philip Róin (@brandhane) November 26, 2022
Noting that it was his first time demonstrating, he added that he had “also thought this way.”
“But then when I went there, I found that the environment was such that everyone was very brave,” he said.
Moreover, the protests have not been limited to the streets. Chinese citizens have also been using ingenious ways to circumvent the infamous firewall and express discontent with the government’s tactics on social media.
A now-deleted video on WeChat featured a blank piece of paper with the caption “Silence speaks louder here, those who understand know.” Other users were seen posting a single, seemingly harmless word, such as “good,” “okay,” or “sure,” repeated many times as a sarcastic expression of discontent.
Just extraordinary scenes in Shanghai: “CCP step down, Xi Jinping step down” https://t.co/HjSKmW6RCz
— Dr. Leta Hong Fincher 洪理达 (@LetaHong) November 26, 2022
Dan Mattingly, an assistant professor of political science at Yale University, told Reuters that ongoing protests “will put serious pressure on the party to respond.” However, he added that “There is a good chance that one response will be repression, and they will arrest and prosecute some protesters.”
The academic stressed that so long as Xi has the backing of a close-knit group of elite politicians, as well as the military, he will not face “any meaningful risk” to his power.
Families in a hi-rise in China were locked into their apartments as their building caught fire. Urumqi, in Xinjiang Province
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 28, 2022
They burned alive as they couldn't escape and no one could get to them in time
This is directly on the CCP and Xi's Zero-Covid lockdown strategy pic.twitter.com/AWQ4oJA7Qg
While the extreme strategy has kept China’s infection rate lower than that of the United States, it has taken a toll on citizens’ finances, mental health, and their opinion of the government. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly evident that the strict measures are not doing much to contain the virus either, with around 40,000 new cases on both Saturday and Sunday.
Amnesty International’s regional director, Hanna Young, remarked in a statement that “The tragedy of the Urumqi fire has inspired remarkable bravery across China.”
“These unprecedented protests show that people are at the end of their tolerance for excessive COVID-19 restrictions,” she stated.
Nov 23, a fire broke out in Urumqi's Jixiang Yuan district. Because of the #covid #lockdown, fire truck couldn’t get closer & people were locked inside & couldn’t escape. #CCP says 10 killed, but it is widely believed that death toll is over 20. That’s 1 reason for today’s riots. pic.twitter.com/Fdt3sQPC8T
— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferzeng97) November 25, 2022
The rights group appealed to the CCP to allow residents to participate in peaceful protests.
Given that the government has yet to publicly comment on the protests, it is not clear how this uprising will play out. Therefore, at this stage, it remains premature to claim that this public dissatisfaction could lead to a Democracy Movement in 1989, which ended with the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing on 4 June 1989, when the government is reported to have killed anywhere between 200 and 10,000 people.