This kind of public defiance is unprecedented during Xi Jinping’s presidency.
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In China, you can be put in prison if you’re heard criticizing President Xi Jinping.
But after suffering through nearly three years of “zero Covid” policies that have upended people’s lives and confined them to their houses for months, some are starting to risk it. During a series of protests in Shanghai, Beijing, and other cities against Covid restrictions this weekend, Chinese demonstrators were reportedly chanting “Xi Jinping, step down” and “Communist party, step down.” They also held up sheets of blank white paper to symbolize the Chinese government’s censorship of content it doesn’t want spreading around the internet.
China analysts say this kind of public defiance is unprecedented for Xi Jinping’s presidency, and could spiral into the worst political crisis for Beijing since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
What sparked the Covid protests?
They were instigated by a fire that killed 10 people in an apartment block in the city of Urumqi. Many people have claimed that Covid lockdown measures hampered rescue efforts, contributing to the tragedy (officials have denied this).
Also fueling some frustration is the contrast between the bleak situation in China and the festive World Cup in Qatar. Seeing jubilant, maskless crowds and a ~normal~ global event take place has led some Chinese people to question if they are living on a different planet than the rest of the world, as one person put it on social media.
Meanwhile, China’s Covid policies and the increasingly bold public reaction to them are threatening companies halfway across the world. Employees who work at the world’s biggest iPhone plant violently tussled with security staff last week after officials clamped down on an outbreak at the facility. The clashes could lead to major shortages of the new iPhone 14, analysts say—just when everyone is trying to snag one for the holidays.
Looking ahead…all eyes are on the Chinese government’s next moves to quell the dissent that appears to only be intensifying. Oh, and this seems important: Covid cases in China hit a record for a fourth straight day on Saturday.
