China’s lockdown protests: What you need to know
By Jessie Yeung and CNN's Beijing bureau, Nov 28, 2022
China has moved quickly to suppress demonstrations that erupted
across the country over the weekend, deploying police forces at key
protest sites and tightening online censorship. The protests were sparked
by anger over the country’s increasingly costly zero-Covid policy, but as numbers swelled at demonstrations in multiple major cities, so too have
the range of grievances voiced – with some calling for greater democracy and freedom.
Among the thousands of protesters, hundreds have even called for the removal of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who for nearly three years has overseen a strategy of
mass-testing, brute-force lockdowns, enforced quarantine and digital tracking that
has come at a devastating human and economic cost. Here’s what we know:
Why are Chinese people protesting?
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The protests were triggered by a deadly fire last Thursday in Urumqi, the capital
of the far western region of Xinjiang. The blaze killed at least 10 people and injured nine in an apartment building – leading to public fury after videos of the
incident appeared to show lockdown measures had delayed firefighters from reaching the victims.
The city had been under lockdown for more than 100 days, with residents unable to leave the
region and many forced to stay home. Videos showed Urumqi residents marching to a
govt building and chanting for the end of lockdown on Friday. The following morning, the
local govt said it would lift the lockdown in stages – but did not provide a clear time frame or address the protests.
That failed to quell public anger and the protests rapidly spread beyond Xinjiang, with residents
in cities and universities across China also taking to the streets.
Where are the protests happening?
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So far, CNN has verified 20 demonstrations that took place across
15 Chinese cities – including the capital Beijing and financial center Shanghai.
In Shanghai on Saturday, 100s gathered for a candlelight vigil on Urumqi Road, named after the Xinjiang city, to mourn the fire victims. Many held up blank sheets of white paper – a symbolic protest against censorship – and chanted, “Need human rights, need freedom.” Some also shouted for Xi to “step down,” and sang The Internationale, a socialist anthem used as a call to
action in demonstrations worldwide for over a century. It was also sung during pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing before a brutal crackdown by armed troops in 1989. China’s zero-Covid policies have been felt particularly
acutely in Shanghai, where a two-month long lockdown earlier this year left many
without access to food, medical care or other basic supplies – sowing deep public resentment.
By Sunday evening, mass demonstrations had spread to Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou
and Wuhan, where thousands of residents called for not only an end to Covid restrictions,
but more remarkably, political freedoms. Residents in some locked-down neighborhoods
tore down barriers and took to the streets. Protests also took place on campuses,
including the prestigious institutions of Peking University and Tsinghua University in
Beijing, and Communication University of China, Nanjing. In Hong Kong, where a national
security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 has been used to stifle dissent, dozens of people
gathered on Monday evening in the city’s Central district for a vigil. Some held blank pieces
of paper, while others left flowers and held signs commemorating those killed in the Urumqi fire.
Why is this significant?
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Public protest is exceedingly rare in China, where the Communist Party has tightened its
grip on all aspects of life, launched a sweeping crackdown on dissent, wiped out much of
civil society and built a high-tech surveillance state. The mass surveillance system is even
more stringent in Xinjiang, where the Chinese govts accused of detaining up to 2 million
Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in camps where former detainees have alleged they
were physically and sexually abused. A damning U.N. report in September described the
region’s “invasive” surveillance network, with police databases containing hundreds of
thousands of files with biometric data such as facial and eyeball scans.
China has repeatedly denied accusations of human rights abuses in the region. While protests do occur in China, they rarely happen on this scale, nor take such direct aim
at the central govt and the nation’s leader, said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor
at Georgia State University who studies Chinese politics and media.
“This is a different type of protest from the more localized protests we have seen
recurring over the past two decades that tend to focus their claims and demands on local officials and on very targeted societal and economic issues,” she said.
Instead, this time the protests have expanded to include “the sharper expression
of political grievances alongside with concerns about Covid-19 lockdowns.” There have been growing signs in recent months that the public has run out of patience with zero-Covid, after nearly three years of economic hardship and disruption to daily life. Isolated pockets of protest broke out October, with anti-zero-Covid
slogans appearing on the walls of public bathrooms and in various Chinese cities,
inspired by a banner hung by a lone protester on an overpass in Beijing just days
before Xi cemented a third term in power. Earlier in November, larger protests took place
in Guangzhou, with residents defying lockdown orders to topple barriers and cheer as they took to the streets.
How have authorities responded?
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While protests in several parts of China appear to have largely dispersed peacefully
over the weekend, authorities responded more forcefully in some cities. The Shanghai
protests on Saturday led to scuffles between demonstrators and police, with arrests
made in the early hours of the morning. Undeterred, protesters returned on Sunday,
where they met a more aggressive response – videos show chaotic scenes of police
pushing, dragging, and beating protesters. The videos have since been scrubbed from the Chinese internet by censors. One Shanghai protester told CNN he was one
of around 80 to 110 people detained in the city on Saturday night. He described being
transferred to a police station, having his phone confiscated and biometric information
collected before being released a day later. CNN cannot independently verify the
number of those arrested. Two foreign reporters were also briefly detained. BBC journalist
Edward Lawrence was arrested in Shanghai on Sunday night, with a BBC spokesperson
claiming he was “beaten and kicked by the police” while covering the protests. He has
since been released. On Monday, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said
Lawrence had not identified himself as a journalist before being detained.
Michael Peuker, China correspondent for Swiss public broadcaster RTS, was reporting
live when he said several police officers approached him. He later posted on Twitter
that the officers took him and his cameraman into a vehicle, before releasing them.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson deflected questions about the protests on
Monday, telling a reporter who asked whether the widespread displays of public anger
would make China consider ending zero-Covid: “What you mentioned does not reflect
what actually happened.” He also claimed that social media posts linking the Xinjiang
fire with Covid policies had “ulterior motives,” and that authorities have been “making
adjustments based on realities on the ground.” When asked about protesters calling on
Xi to step down, he replied: “I’m not aware of the situation you mentioned.”
State-run media has not directly covered the demonstrations – but praised zero-Covid,
with one newspaper on Sunday calling it “the most scientifically effective” approach.
How has the world responded?
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In recent days, vigils and demonstrations expressing solidarity with protesters in China
have been held around the world, including in the U.K., Canada and Australia. As news of the protests made international headlines, foreign govt officials and
orgs voiced support for the protesters and criticized Beijing’s response. “We’re watching this closely, as you might expect we would,” said US National
Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Monday. “We continue to stand up and support the right of peaceful protest.”
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told reporters the Chinese govt should “listen to the voices of its own people … when they are saying that they are not
happy with the restrictions imposed upon them.” The European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
also said on Monday that it condemned “the intolerable intimidation and aggression”
directed toward member journalists in China, in an apparent reference to the foreign
journalists who were detained.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/28/china/china-lockdown-protests-covid-explainer-intl-hnk
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