After the Urumqi fire in Xinjiang, there were protests in many places on the mainland. There were also people holding plain white paper on the streets of Hong Kong, and in various colleges and universities as a sign of support. The Secretary for Security, Chris Tang Ping-keung, responded to the incident in the Legislative Council on Nov. 29, claiming that it was an “attempt to incite activities against the central government” and described it as “the early signs of another color revolution.”
Tang said that he found some people raised and instigated related activities on different social media platforms. Some of them went as far as organizing and urging others to take to the streets, using university campuses as bases and using similar props (white paper) as symbols.
He also pointed out that he noticed words such as “abuse of power,” “down with the leader,” “revolution,” and the like were written on many of the papers. He added that “all of these could be in breach of the National Security Law and endanger national security.”
He warned that whether they are mainland students or media, if they break the law, they will have to bear the legal consequences.
As of Nov. 28, residents in 18 provinces and cities, and 79 colleges and universities on the mainland have seen such “White Paper Revolution” as a protest against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Since Nov. 27, similar “White Paper” activities as a show of solidarity have also been staged in Hong Kong on university campuses and the streets. Mainland students and Hong Kong citizens formed the bulk of the participants in these events.
