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A year after protests against draconian lockdown measures, participants feel a new sense of strength and responsibility.
Students at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, China, light candles to mourn victims of the Urumqi fire and hold blank sheets of paper in protest, Nov. 27, 2022.
In late November 2022, the Chinese network was flooded with expressions of grief and anger, despite the government’s efforts to maintain its strict censorship of online dissent. The wave of violence was sparked by a fire in Urumqi, capital of the western region of Xinjiang. , which killed at least 10 other people after strict COVID-19 regulations reportedly limited the movement of patients and rescuers.
In the days that followed, tens of thousands of people, many of them young people, took to the streets across China to protest the government’s inhumane reaction to the pandemic and denounce the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The movement, named after the blank sheets of paper that participants brandished to mock official censorship, also gained wide acceptance among the Chinese diaspora, as thousands of people held demonstrations in primary cities from Paris to Sydney.
It has been a year since protests, the largest in China since the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1989, took the world by surprise. However, strict censorship and surveillance have made public commemorations within the country almost impossible. Words and names related to the protests continue to be banned online, protest sites are cordoned off by police and those who participated in 2022 still face police harassment.
However, as with the first protests, commemorative activities have spread internationally. At a rally I attended in Washington, D. C. , a Chinese man, dressed in a mask to protect his identity, called himself a “survivor” of the CCP’s zero-COVID policy. And he said it was his “privilege and duty” to speak out about other people who have been censored within the country. At a memorial rally in London, activist Ma Youwei told Radio Free Asia: “It’s not unusual to feel powerless like Chinese living in China. I wanted to get rid of that feeling. It is done through action.
For many Chinese, the main takeaway from the protests is that many more of their compatriots are deeply dissatisfied with the regime than they thought in the past. Freedom House studies show that at least 72 protests took place in 17 provinces and regions in the past week. November 2022. ” I couldn’t have imagined that so many people would come today,” said one protester in Shanghai on the popular Chinese-language podcast Bumingbai.
Similar sentiments were shared among Chinese protesters in the diaspora. A student who organized a protest on a campus in the United States told me, “I thought only other people I already knew would show up. Then I saw about three hundred more people! A PC programmer who attended an outdoor protest at the Chinese consulate in New York said, “I saw my colleague in the crowd. During all the years I’ve worked with him, I didn’t know that he hates the PCC as much as I do!
Knowing that “I’m not alone” is incredibly empowering. Since then, other people have been encouraged to help their classmates and colleagues talk about Chinese politics, organize offline events, and share data and minds online. Anonymous social media accounts born out of the protests continue to gain traction, serving as central topics of news and debate. Over the past year, I attended many one-on-one meetings with activists, students, and professionals of mainland Chinese descent, where we discussed concepts about human rights and democracy.
Another notable feature of the White Paper is the higher proportion of female participants. Many of them gained organizing experience through their involvement in China’s women’s rights movement, which continues to thrive despite relentless government repression. Unlike the previous generation of democracy advocates as activists, the other young people who are at the forefront of activism today not only worry about the CCP’s authoritarian rule, but also about China’s patriarchal society and deep-seated discrimination against LGBTQ groups. Not only do they care about the human rights of Chinese Han, but also about the human rights of Uyghurs and Tibetans.
Many other young people recognize that they would possibly be oppressed in one context and oppressors in another, and that the struggle for a truly democratic China – one that protects not only the political freedom of dominant and privileged groups, but also the dignity and rights of the marginalized and dispossessed – can also take generations. This realization of the complexity of authoritarian repression is unprecedented.
I have also noticed that more and more young Chinese activists are concerned about human rights issues in other countries. In the United States, they have participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, protests against George Floyd, and demonstrations for women and freedom in Iran. In recent weeks, the Instagram account of the anonymous activist organization Citizen Daily CN has posted messages calling for attention to be paid to the situation in Gaza. An increasing number of young people see themselves as part of a global struggle for freedom and human rights. rights and that solidarity with other oppressed people around the world is an ethical imperative. This point of foreign attitude is also unprecedented.
As Washington and Beijing interact more and more brazenly in geopolitical competition, we must not lose sight of the passionate preference for freedom that the Chinese seek to express. We will take your aspirations into account at each and every opportunity.
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In late November 2022, the Chinese network was flooded with expressions of grief and anger, despite the government’s efforts to maintain its strict censorship of online dissent. The wave of violence was sparked by a fire in Urumqi, capital of the western region of Xinjiang. , which killed at least 10 other people after strict COVID-19 regulations reportedly limited the movement of patients and rescuers.
In the days that followed, tens of thousands of people, many of them young people, took to the streets across China to protest the government’s inhumane reaction to the pandemic and denounce the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The movement, named after the blank sheets of paper that participants brandished to mock official censorship, also gained wide acceptance among the Chinese diaspora, as thousands of people held demonstrations in primary cities from Paris to Sydney.
It has been a year since protests, the largest in China since the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1989, took the world by surprise. However, strict censorship and surveillance have made public commemorations within the country almost impossible. Words and names related to the protests continue to be banned online, protest sites are cordoned off by police and those who participated in 2022 still face police harassment.
However, as with the first protests, commemorative activities have spread internationally. At a rally I attended in Washington, D. C. , a Chinese man, dressed in a mask to protect his identity, called himself a “survivor” of the CCP’s zero-COVID policy. And he said it was his “privilege and duty” to speak out about other people who have been censored within the country. At a memorial rally in London, activist Ma Youwei told Radio Free Asia: “It’s not unusual to feel powerless as Chinese living in China. I wanted to get rid of that feeling. It is done through action.
For many Chinese, the main takeaway from the protests is that many more of their compatriots are deeply dissatisfied with the regime than they thought in the past. Freedom House studies show that at least 72 protests took place in 17 provinces and regions in the past week. November 2022. ” I couldn’t have imagined that so many people would come today,” said one protester in Shanghai on the popular Chinese-language podcast Bumingbai.
Similar sentiments were shared among Chinese protesters in the diaspora. A student who organized a campus protest in the United States told me: “I thought only other people I already knew would show up. Then I saw about three hundred more people! A PC programmer who attended an outdoor protest , the Chinese consulate in New York said: “I saw my colleague in the crowd. In all the years I’ve worked with him, I didn’t know he hates the CCP as much as I do!
Knowing that “I’m not alone” is incredibly empowering. Since then, other people have been encouraged to help their classmates and colleagues talk about Chinese politics, organize offline events, and share data and minds online. Anonymous social media accounts born out of the protests. They continue to gain traction and serve as central topics of news and debate. Over the past year, I attended many one-on-one meetings with activists, students, and professionals of mainland Chinese descent, where we discussed concepts about human rights and democracy.
Another notable feature of the White Paper is the higher proportion of female participants. Many of them gained organizing experience through their involvement in China’s women’s rights movement, which continues to thrive despite relentless government repression. Unlike the previous generation of democracy advocates as activists, the other young people who are at the forefront of activism today not only worry about the CCP’s authoritarian rule, but also about China’s patriarchal society and deep-seated discrimination against LGBTQ groups. Not only do they care about the human rights of Chinese Han, but also about the human rights of Uyghurs and Tibetans.
Many other young people recognize that they would possibly be oppressed in one context and oppressors in another, and that the struggle for a truly democratic China – one that protects not only the political freedom of dominant and privileged groups, but also the dignity and rights of the marginalized and dispossessed – can also take generations. This realization of the complexity of authoritarian repression is unprecedented.
I have also noticed that more and more young Chinese activists are concerned about human rights issues in other countries. In the United States, they have participated in pro-Palestinian rallies, protests against George Floyd, and demonstrations for women and freedom in Iran. In recent weeks, the Instagram account of the anonymous activist organization Citizen Daily CN has posted messages calling for attention to the situation in Gaza. An increasing number of young people see themselves as part of a global struggle for freedom and human rights. rights and that solidarity with other oppressed people around the world is an ethical imperative. This point of foreign attitude is also unprecedented.
As Washington and Beijing interact more and more brazenly in geopolitical competition, we must not lose sight of the passionate preference for freedom that the Chinese seek to express. We will take your aspirations into account at each and every opportunity.
In late November 2022, the Chinese internet was flooded with expressions of grief and anger, despite the government’s efforts to maintain its strict censorship of online dissent. The wave of violence was unleashed through a fire in Urumqi, capital of the western region of Xinjiang. , which killed at least 10 other people after strict COVID-19 regulations reportedly limited the movement of patients and rescuers.
In the days that followed, tens of thousands of people, many of them young people, took to the streets across China to protest the government’s inhumane reaction to the pandemic and denounce the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The movement, named after the blank sheets of paper that participants brandished to mock official censorship, also gained wide acceptance among the Chinese diaspora, as thousands of people held demonstrations in primary cities from Paris to Sydney.
Yaqiu Wang is director of research for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan at Freedom House.