A fatal apartment fire in China’s Urumqi city has sparked protests in dozens of Chinese cities and universities over the problems caused by the regime’s strict epidemic control measures. The protests have quickly spread abroad and received international solidarity.
The White House and U.S. State Department issued statements stressing that everyone has the right to peacefully protest. The German President expressed understanding of the Chinese protesters. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Chinese authorities to refrain from arbitrarily detaining the peaceful protesters.
Over the last weekend, protests erupted in Shanghai, Beijing, Urumqi, Wuhan, Chengdu, and several other big cities, demanding the lift of lockdowns, mandatory nucleic acid testing, mask orders, and other restrictive regulations.
Protesters chanted political slogans such as “Step down, Chinese Communist Party!” With many holding up a blank piece of paper in protest, the movement is now known by some as the ”White Paper Revolution.”
The use of blank sheets of white paper is seen as a symbol of public discontent that everyone knows of but cannot express openly in an authoritarian state. Protesters previously used white paper during mass pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2019, a movement against communist China’s tightening control over the city.
Some also say the blank paper in protests is a reference to a political joke of the former Soviet Union: A man was distributing leaflets in Red Square, but was caught by the KGB. The KGB confiscated all the leaflets only to find that they were nothing more than blank sheets of paper. The KGB thought for a while and decided to still arrest the man, saying: “So you assume I don’t know what you are talking about?”
As of Monday, the protests have spread to Chinese cities in at least 18 provinces, including Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chengdu, Hefei, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Urumqi, Dali, Xiamen, Zhuzhou, Xuzhou, as well as more than 79 universities, such as Tsinghua University, Nanjing Media College, Fudan University, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Baptist University.
The protesters have come up with creative ways to express their anger about the Zero-COVID policy. Some held up white papers, some sang the national anthem, and some used wordplay to avoid censorship.
People initially gathered spontaneously to mourn the deaths of the fire victims. As anger and sorrow built up, the mourning erupted into protests.
Chinese state media reported that there were 10 deaths in the Urumqi fire, but local residents said there were at least 40. When the fire broke out, people were trapped in their apartments, due to the authorities’ extreme pandemic control measures.
The wave of protests against COVID lockdown measures has spread to schools and communities abroad. Vigils and protests organized by expatriate dissidents and Chinese students have been held in Europe, Asian cities, and other cities including London, Toronto, New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Sydney. Such rallies of defiance are a rare act for Chinese both at home and abroad.
AFP reported that on the morning of Nov. 28, police were visible near the sites in Beijing and Shanghai where protesters rallied on the previous day.
On Chinese social networks, all messages about the protests seemed to have been deleted by Monday morning. On Weibo platforms, searches for “Liangmahe” and “Urumqi Street,” the locations of protests in Beijing and Shanghai respectively, were treated as sensitive information, leading to empty search results.
International Leaders Show Solidarity
The White House expressed support for the peaceful protests across China. “Our message to peaceful protesters around the world is the same and consistent: People should be allowed the right to assemble and to peacefully protest policies or laws or dictates that they take issue with,” White House’s National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters at a news conference on Nov. 28.In an interview with Deutsche Welle on the same day, German President Steinmeier expressed his understanding of the wave of protests sparked by China’s strict COVID restrictions, and called on Beijing to allow the demonstrations to take place.
“We all remember our own fight against the coronavirus, against the pandemic, and we still remember how much of a burden that was for many in Germany,” Steinmeier told DW. “We can only wonder what a burden it must be for the people of China, where measures are far stricter and longer-reaching, even today. So I understand why people want to voice their impatience and grievance on the streets.”
“As a democrat, I can only say that the freedom to express one’s own opinion freely is important, and I can only hope that authorities in China respect the right to freedom of expression and the freedom to demonstrate. And of course, I hope that the demonstrations remain peaceful,” Steinmeier continued.
A representative for the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also urged Beijing to respect the right of peaceful protest. “No one should be arbitrarily detained for peacefully expressing their opinions,” OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told reporters on Nov. 28.
Many people were assaulted and arrested by Chinese police during the wave of protests, including a BBC correspondent in China. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was “shocking and unacceptable.”
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also said that media freedom, and freedom to protest, must be respected.
“The arrest of BBC journalist Ed Lawrence in China is deeply disturbing. Journalists must be able to do their job without intimidation,” he said.
