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A rare and dramatic protest in Beijing that criticized President Xi Jinping has prompted an online search for the identity of the mysterious protester, as a compliment for the action.
The protester had scaled the Sitong Bridge in Beijing’s Haidian district and hung two banners calling for an end to China’s harsh zero-covid policy and the ouster of Xi.
While state media remained silent, images and videos of Thursday’s event circulated widely online, prompting a swift crackdown through censors on social media platforms and the WeChat app used to the fullest in Chinese.
Thursday’s protest took place on the eve of a historic Communist Party congress, where Mr. Xi is expected to assume a third term as leader, consolidating his grip on power.
The user also set fire to what appeared to be car tires and may only be heard chanting slogans on a loudspeaker.
Reports imply that one user has been arrested in connection with the protest. Footage of the incident showed police surrounding the wearer, who was wearing a yellow helmet and orange clothing.
The BBC asked police for comment.
Many praised the lone protester’s movements, calling him a “hero” and calling him the “new Tank Man,” a reference to the unknown Chinese who stood in front of tanks at Tiananmen protests in 1989.
Online detectives tried to find the person, focusing on a Chinese investigator and physicist from a village in the northern province of Heilongjiang. A BBC check with village officials showed that a guy with that call lived there.
He had posted what appeared to be a manifesto on the popular studies site ResearchGate. It was later deleted, others have downloaded copies since then.
In the 23-page document, he called for a strike and acts of civil disobedience, such as the crushing of Covid testing stations, on Sunday. It is to prevent “dictator Xi Jinping from illegally remaining in force, so that China can embark in the wake of democracy and freedom. “
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Some Chinese piled up on the man’s two Twitter accounts, posted what they claimed were his photos and wrote many messages of thanks.
“You are a hero and you have my respect,” one user wrote, while saying, “Greetings to the village hero!I hope you can return safely!”
The man’s call is among the protest-like documents that have been censored online. No reference to the incident can be discovered on Chinese social media Weibo until Friday morning.
Images and photographs of the protest and relevant keywords, which added “Haidian,” “Beijing protester” and “Sitong Bridge,” were temporarily removed. Expressions tangentially similar to protest, which added “bridge” and “heroes,” also yielded limited results. .
Although Chinese media did not report on the incident, former Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin gave the impression of referring to it when he tweeted last Thursday that the “vast majority” of Chinese regime the Communist Party and “hope for stability. “and oppose agitation. “
Many Chinese reported that their accounts on social media platforms or WeChat, China’s largest messaging app, were banned after sharing images of the protest or posting messages alluding to the protest.
The BBC has reached out to Tencent, the WeChat company, to confirm this.
Such a dramatic protest, and a public complaint from the government, is rare in China, China’s difficult “zero covid” policy has fueled growing public frustration.
In 2018, a woman who defaced a poster of Mr. Xi, claiming she opposed his “tyranny,” then entered an intellectual hospital.
The moves by Beijing protesters come at a politically sensitive time, with thousands of police expected to mobilize in the capital ahead of the week-long party congress.
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