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“Zero covid” protests have been a rare rebuke of Xi Jinping’s regime, and Beijing is trying to deter those who might have been emboldened by them.
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By Vivian Wang and Zixu Wang
First they took the accountant and the freelancer. Then to the former tutor for the BA in English Literature. And a few days later, the police came here chasing the editor of the Beijing publishing house.
The 4 women arrested were friends. They spent their free time in the Chinese capital just like many other curious and artistic young people: cheering e-book clubs, watching movies, discussing social issues like feminism and L. G. B. T. Q. BBQ fees. When protests against coronavirus restrictions erupted in November across China, and Beijing was added, they attended. And they are now among the first people known to have been officially arrested in connection with those protests.
China is waging a crusade of intimidation against those who joined the protests, which were the challenge to the Communist Party’s boldest force in decades and a shameful affront to its leader, Xi Jinping.
It turned out that the party made the decision to warn anyone who might have been emboldened by the notable outburst of public discontent, which was followed a few days later by Beijing’s abrupt resolution to remove Covid restrictions. Since then, demanding national situations have multiplied: youth unemployment is high, the economy is slowing down, and Covid infections and deaths have accelerated.
Authorities have not officially announced the arrests and have largely refused to acknowledge the protests. By trying to quell the unrest without further inflaming public anger, the party has favored silent repression.
But news of the arrests, as well as the interrogations and detentions of many other protesters, circulated widely among those who attended the protests or encouraged them in the hope of a revival of civil society. For many, the crackdown is still a reminder of the authorities. ‘ the intolerance of dissent, even nonviolent dissent, and the private dangers that come with the Beijing test.
The party is also running to discredit protesters by portraying them as a team of evil foreign powers. Beijing has long shunned internal dissent, from calls for women’s rights to pro-democracy activism and ethnic unrest, in the wake of Western-backed subversion. The “zero covid” protests were no exception: A Chinese diplomat said some of the protesters had been “bought through external forces. “
The New York Times spoke with several other people familiar with the cases of the four women who were arrested. They requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, to provide the main points of the women’s arrests and interrogations. People have been following the women’s cases a lot and added for weeks before, when police began questioning them. They were in contact with them before their arrest or with relatives since their disappearance.
Police questioned the women about their use of messaging platforms or their participation in feminist activities, such as reading groups, according to the people. Chinese propaganda has denounced feminism as another tool of foreign influence.
The women, for their part, said they were motivated by their own trusts and confidence that they had the right, even in China, to express them. Before her arrest in December, one of the women, Cao Zhixin, editor-in-chief, recorded a video she shared with friends to find out if she disappeared.
“We care about this company,” Ms. Cao, 26, said in the video, in which she said the other 3: Li Yuanjing, the accountant; Li Siqi, 27, the freelance writer; and Zhai Dengrui, the former literature student, had already taken him away.
“At the scene, we respect public order, we push for any confrontation with the police,” Cao said. “Then why do they still have to take us secretly?”
It is far from transparent that the 4 women were targeted for their interest in feminism. Other protesters may have also been arrested. Some Chinese social media users have tried to post the names of those missing from the protests, with participatory lists naming about two dozen people.
But the legal formula is opaque and social media is heavily censored, making it difficult to fully account for it. Under Chinese law, police can detain other people for more than a month without officially arresting them.
But even if the government hadn’t first targeted women for their feminist activities, once they were investigated, those activities may have made them a target, said Lu Pin, a Chinese feminist activist now living in the United States, after facing harassment at home.
“The Chinese government has to look for an explanation that fits its logic, and it is not that other people organize, according to their own political sentiment. There will have to be a ‘black hand,’ Lu said. ” In China, feminism is the ultimate active and visual social movement. “
The protest in Beijing on Nov. 27 began with a candlelight vigil for at least 10 other people who died in the fireplace of an apartment in the western region of Xinjiang in November. Many Chinese believed that covid restrictions had prevented patients from escaping, although the government denied this.
It had arisen out of grief, Cao, the editor-in-chief, said in her video.
“We have valid feelings to express when our compatriots are killed, we are full of sympathy for those who lost their lives, that’s why we went,” Cao said.
That night, the Beijing police were sober, even as the vigil turned into a street protest calling for an end to “covid zero” and greater political freedoms. The officers filmed the participants but did not aggressively detain others at the scene.
An official, assisted by a Times reporter, told protesters he was also mourning those who had died in the fire. Another recalled the protesters: “No one touched them.
But that soon changed. In the days that followed, others who had attended the protests in Beijing and other cities described being summoned or visited in their homes by officers, who asked them why they had gone to the protests and with whom. has been used to locate them. China’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, called the protesters “foreign forces” and later refused to testify at the request of journalists.
A similar theme may have come up in police interrogations of the four women, according to others familiar with their case.
Police asked about Chizuko Ueno’s e-book clubs, where they had read Chizuko Ueno, a prominent Japanese feminist scholar. They highlighted their use of Telegram, the messaging app, which is blocked in China without special software. At least some of them had studied abroad.
Police accused the women of “provoking fights and riots,” other people familiar with the case said, an indistinct crime the government blames critics for silencing them. He faces up to five years in prison.
Reached by phone, an official from Beijing’s public security bureau said no one would be available for comment until the end of the Lunar New Year holiday week.
Ms. Lu, the feminist activist in the United States, said the police’s apparent focus on others who were not prominent organizers, or even part of a larger group, underscored how much the government had decimated civil society.
“After all the repression, in the eyes of the police, those other people have the maximum threat forces,” he said. — at key moments, they may have the possibility of political activation. “
The authorities’ main motivation for moving the cases forward is probably not to crack down on those particular women, but rather to warn those who might have been encouraged by the protests.
While there have been no large-scale repetitions of last year’s politically charged protests, sporadic protests over more discreet issues have continued in recent weeks. to ask for unpaid wages. The rise in deaths and illnesses that followed the sudden release may also stoke anger, said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.
“In the long run, I think the damage to the reputation and legitimacy of the party and Xi Jinping is significant,” Professor Tsang said. And after seeing that damage turn into political protest, he added, “intimidation is necessarily what’s done to make sure it doesn’t happen again. “
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