The policy of “zero tolerance” to Covid, pursued with tenacity and obstinacy in almost three years of the pandemic, has turned into a dangerous boomerang for the Chinese leadership. The thousands of people who descended to demonstrate in various cities of the country, at the cost of serious consequences, for the first time directly targeted the Communist Party and President Xi Jinping, whose resignation was requested, together with a democratic breakthrough . An affront that in Zhongnanhai, the citadel of red power in Beijing, will certainly have raised the level of guard against a phenomenon that is spreading throughout China as it hasn’t happened since the days of Tiananmen Square driven by social media, where creativity neutralized the censorship of the Great Firewall.
But in the aftermath of the rampant protests, the Beijing government reiterates that “the battle against Covid-19 will be successful”. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, in the usual press briefing, when asked about the demonstrations, said that the question does not correspond “to the facts”. “We believe – said Zhao Lijian – that with the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the support of the Chinese people, our battle against Covid-19 will be successful”.
Meanwhile, BBC reporter Ed Lawrence was arrested among the protesters in Shanghai, from what we learn “because he did not identify himself as a journalist,” added Lijian.
Protests at Peking University
The white sheets in the hands are the most recognizable anti-lockdown symbols and escape the controls. Shanghai e Beijing are the epicenters of the protest that also has ramifications in other cities, including Nanjing, Qingdao, Chengdu and Wuhan, the infamous capital of Hebei at the origin of the new coronavirus crisis in January 2020. In the Chinese capital, at the prestigious Tsinghua University , about three hundred students protested after a blank sheet was posted.
The videos circulated online show the anger of an exhausted, exhausted and frustrated population at the constant anti-virus restrictions that repeat the usual recipe: lockdowns, mass tests, endless quarantines and interference in the sphere of rights. Xi himself, who has just been reconfirmed at the helm of the CCP with an unprecedented third term in a row, defined the zero-Covid line as “inexpensive”, despite the restrictions having sunk the economy, stating that the government line would remain that way until to the “final victory” over the virus.
A few hundred people also gathered along the Liangma River and in the surrounding areas for a vigil – in defiance of anti-Covid restrictions – in memory of the victims of the fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, which claimed the lives of 10 people last week in a tragedy blamed on inflexible anti-Covid policies. The government has accused “forces with ulterior motives” of linking the deadly fire to strict anti-Covid measures. “There are forces on social media with ulterior motives linking this fire to the local response to Covid-19,” the foreign ministry spokesman said. The online posts noted that the anti-Covid lockdowns in Urumqi hampered relief efforts in response to a fire in an apartment building Thursday night.
In Shanghai, protesters are calling for the end of the Communist Party
While even the images of the World Cup in Qatar, with stadiums packed with spectators without masks, have become the subject of debate among netizens, a symbol of an outside world that has made other choices than China: the state-owned network Cctv, broadcasting the matches, saw fit to cut the footage of the audience in the stands. TO Shanghai, Wulumuqi Road – which takes its name from Urumqi – has become the heart of the claims: on Saturday there was a vigil that resulted in a protest which was later crushed with dozens of people arrested by the police. The hard punch did not discourage the other hundreds of people who turned up again today explicitly demanding the end of the Communist Party, the resignation of Xi Jinping, democracy and expressing solidarity with the cause of Iranian women.
There is widespread anger over the two months of lockdown experienced until early June that saw the city sink into a nightmare, while in response then city CCP secretary Li Qiang was promoted by Xi to number two in the party, then to premier in pectore. “Down with the Communist Party of China, down with Xi Jinping,” was a recognizable slogan in a video posted on social media. More recently, clashes were filmed between migrant workers and the police in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, after more than eighty days of lockdown, and in Guangzhou, at the umpteenth blockade.
China, protests over anti-Covid restrictions: angry crowds take to the streets in Shanghai
China in the worst Covid wave
China, among other things, is in the midst of the worst wave of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, with record numbers (but still relative compared to the rest of the world) which rose on Saturday – according to the National Health Commission – to almost 40,000 units nationwide, mainly in Guangzhou, Chongqing and Beijing.
Meanwhile, the impact of the extraordinary protest organized in Beijing by Peng Zaizhou, the real name of Peng Lifa, on the Sitong overpass last October 13 on the eve of the 20th party congress, seems to be emerging. The slogans he wrote on the banners were widely taken up by the protesters: from “we don’t want to swab, we want freedom” and “we want dignity not lies”, up to “via dictator Xi Jinping”.
The protests in China, was one of the readings provided on social networks, «are like the tiny anthills in the dam. While none of them are fatal, enough in strategic places and times could lead to the collapse of the mighty structure. Because one of the best traditions of Chinese culture dates back at least to Confucius: “Do the impossible.”
