Protests are rampant in Beijing, Shanghai and dozens of universities. Clashes with the police, while new records of infections are recorded in the country. BBC reporter arrested
Night vigils, processions, crowd gatherings: civil disobedience and protest erupted in the cities of China still forced into the health lockdown by the authorities chasing the impossible Covid Zero, the total suppression of infections. Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan weekend screamed the frustration of the people for a life that for three years has been kept suspended by preventive quarantines, marked by the rule of daily swabs, with the fear of ending up in the infamous fangcang, the temporary isolation and treatment centres.
The first to move were the citizens of Shanghai, where on Saturday hundreds of people gathered at Wulumuqi Road, the street named after the capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi. They commemorated the ten dead in a fire that broke out in Urumqi on Thursday, which locals say was not put out in a timely manner as firefighters were hampered by lockdown barriers and the building’s fire exits were sealed to prevent anyone from escaped the sanitary isolation, which has lasted for 100 days.
Tired and exasperated people. On November 11, the Politburo chaired by Xi Jinping announced an easing of health restrictions to optimize the impact on the economy and the life of the population. But in the face of a resurgence of infections lockdowns have multiplied. The only difference is that now the closures are not declared, they are verbally ordered by officials, building after building, neighborhood after neighborhood, signaled by high barriers in the streets: for days the center of ghostly Beijing, schools, offices and shops closed.
On Saturday in Shanghai, the Wulumuqi Road crowd began to sing Do You Hear the People Sing?, the song of the oppressed in the musical Les Misrables; then the national anthem with the words Arise, arise; until someone began to spell Communist Party and the people responded in chorus: Resignation; Xi Jinping and again echoed the cry: Resignation. The protest was also repeated yesterday in Shanghai. The symbol of the dispute they are becoming the white papers waved in front of the police: to signal that censorship cancels any voice of dissent. But this time the agents intervened in force, loaded and used pepper spray, there have been clashes and arrests. And again he shouts. Down with Xi, down with the Party. In Beijing, hundreds of other people took their blank papers into the street during the night. Everyone filmed with mobile phones, to pour the images on social networks. BBC journalist Edward Lawrence arrested precisely because he was filming a protest in the square against the country’s zero Covid policy. The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our reporter Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed, the station said in a statement. According to the BBC, Lawrence, who works in the country as an accredited journalist, was detained for several hours, during which time he was beaten and kicked by the police before being released: We have not received any official explanation or apology from the Chinese authorities, other than the claim of the officials who later released him that they arrested him for his own good, in case he caught the virus in a crowd, she added. BBC adding that we do not think this is a credible explanation.
I’m boiling too dozens of university campuses. In these three years of pandemic, students have endured long periods of confinement in dormitories as soon as a contagion emerged. The boys of the famous Tsinghua in Beijing, in addition to the blank sheets, have prepared others with exclamation marks circled in red: the warning that appears when you search for some prohibited topic on the web. So empty posts are published on social media, or with mocking words: It’s all right, Silence speaks for itself, whoever understands knows.
There is a list of about fifty universities in turmoil, from Beijing to Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou. Simultaneous protests against power in China have not been seen for years, they are certainly bad news for Xi Jinping. Repression can become tougher if the top of power is targeted.
Yesterday the People’s newspaper has published an editorial asking the Chinese to align themselves unitedly with the decisions of the secretary general. The communist newspaper notes that the Chinese people have been least impacted by the pandemic in the world and now he has to beat fatigue and defeat relaxation. In China since October infections are on the riseabout 40,000 a day. Very low number compared to 1.4 billion Chinese. But the Covid Zero goal is clearly unattainable, from a dream turned into a nightmare.
November 27, 2022 (change November 28, 2022 | 01:31)
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