Chinese authorities are grappling with internal alarm following a rare public protest in Southwest China, where three large banners denouncing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were displayed on an overpass in a busy commercial district—and remained in place for nearly three hours before being removed.
According to Chinese dissident Yuan Hongbing, who spoke to The Epoch Times citing an insider, Beijing’s alarm stemmed not from the content of the protest banners, but rather, a potentially crumbling foundation in the CCP’s tightly controlled surveillance state.
The banners, unfurled in the early morning of April 15 near the Chadianzi Bus Terminal in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, carried bold messages calling for democratic reform.
“Without political system reform, there will be no national rejuvenation,” “The people do not need a political party with unrestrained power,” and “China does not need anyone to point out the direction, democracy is the direction,” they read.
The phrase “point out the direction” frequently appears in Chinese state media regarding CCP leader Xi Jinping, often in headlines such as “Xi points out the direction for education reform” or “Xi points out the direction for the future of the United Nations.”
According to the account’s owner, Italy-based Chinese writer Li Ying, the protester shared the photos with her in order to gain broader attention. A screenshot of his email posted on X by Li shows that during the nearly three hours the banners remained on display, he told Li he had spent a year preparing them. In another message, he noted that many passersby noticed the banners, and some stopped to read.
“I’ll probably be arrested soon. Let’s hope democracy can be realized as soon as possible,” he wrote. According to Li, those were the protester’s final words before he went missing since the morning of April 15.
According to the source, the banners went unnoticed by the authorities for nearly two hours until they were discovered by a patrol officer. Even more unusual, the source said, was the response from the officer’s superiors: Rather than ordering immediate removal, they instructed the officer to preserve the scene “as evidence,” allowing the banners to remain for another 30 to 40 minutes.
Yuan, a former law professor at Peking University and now an outspoken Chinese dissident living in Australia, noted that China’s pervasive surveillance network—including facial recognition, real-time monitoring, and high-density CCTV coverage—was designed precisely to prevent such displays of dissent.
“This happened in a high-traffic, heavily monitored area. The fact that it went undetected for hours is a clear sign of dysfunction within the CCP’s security system,” he said.
According to the insider, Beijing’s top leaders, including Xi, are more concerned about the police’s slow response than the protest itself. They fear that a growing number of “two-faced” individuals have emerged within the social-control system, intentionally adopting a “laid-back governance” approach, and that these issues have become “extremely serious.”
Chinese police typically treat political incidents as top-priority tasks. They can face severe punishment for inaction or delayed responses. In contrast, they seldom face consequences for misconduct that harms civilians.
The source further revealed that the incident has triggered a high-level investigation, but notably, not under the usual leadership of the Ministry of Public Security. Instead, the probe is being led jointly by China’s top anti-corruption and national security bodies: the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of State Security.
“This shows Xi’s deepening political anxiety,” Yuan said. “The fact that the Public Security Ministry was sidelined in the investigation signals that Xi is losing confidence in the police apparatus.”
The Chengdu protest drew immediate comparisons to the high-profile Sitong Bridge demonstration in Beijing in October 2022, when a lone activist, Peng Lifa, hung banners over a Beijing overpass calling for freedom, reform, and Xi’s resignation.
Peng’s protest took place during the height of China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy, with messages denouncing the regime’s harsh lockdowns, mandatory testing, and suppression of personal freedoms. His act of defiance sparked a wave of youth-led protests across the country and contributed to the eventual dismantling of the country’s COVID restrictions two months later. Peng was swiftly detained on the day of the protest, and his whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
Yuan believes the Chengdu incident underscores a growing undercurrent of discontent—not only among ordinary citizens but also within the ranks of those charged with enforcing state control.
“The delayed reaction speaks volumes. It reflects a deeper erosion of faith in the regime and mounting frustration across society,” he said.
