Key Points
- Chinese Australians show solidarity with protesters of China's zero-Covid policy
- Chinese protesters have turned to blank sheets of paper to express their anger over COVID restrictions
- Protests broke out in streets and on university campuses around the country over the weekend in what was the biggest public display of criticism since Tiananmen Sqaure massacre
After watching scenes of protests erupt across Chinese cities over the weekend, David Chu, a former Beijing resident now living in Australia, says he thought it was an apt time to get involved.
He posted a virtual piece of white paper on Chinese social media WeChat in support of students in Chinese cities .
The digital blank paper supporters of protests to end China's zero-Covid policy are sharing on social media. Credit: Supplied
A deadly fire in an apartment building in far western province Xinjiang appears to be fuelling the most recent anger, which has prompted many protesters to call on president Xi Jinping to step down.
Restrictions had been placed on residents in the province’s capital Urumqi since early August.
“We have migrated to Australia, a democratic country, but we’re still Chinese people and we feel what they feel,” Mr Chu said.
He told SBS Chinese he was concerned for the students involved in the latest student-led protests, as the last major demonstration by the demographic in 1989 led to a bloody crackdown and massacre around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Chinese Communist Party faces security threat not seen since protests that led to Tiananmen Square massacre. Source: AP / AP Photo/Jeff Widener, File
Pro-democracy activist Richard Lue said he was surprised by the pace young people were able to gather for vigils across major cities to remember victims of the Xinjiang fire before taking their anger to the streets.
“But I’m not surprised with such events unfolding because the writing was already on the wall, with the sheer number of people leaving comments on social media,” Mr Lue told SBS Chinese from Perth.
“Residents in lockdown are already at the end of their tether.”
‘We’ve knelt for too long’: protesters
Ms Wang*, who only wanted to provide her surname to SBS Chinese, said people at the protests she attended on Sunday evening in Chengdu, in southwestern mainland China, were apolitical, and not calling for President Xi Jinping to step down.
But she said she was sent video clips of other protests of people chanting only two words – “step down”.
Ms Wang said she and hundreds of mainly young and middle-aged people had gathered earlier in the evening to hold a vigil for the Xinjiang apartment fire victims on the street before protests began.
She says vigil participants had argued they had “knelt for too long” and “every day, children were brainwashed in school with this ism and that thought".
People in Chendgu hold vigil for Urumqi fire victims on Sunday evening. Credit: Supplied
She said plain-clothed police officers in facemasks then appeared from the opposite direction to arrest the leaders of the protest group with force to prevent protesters from marching forward.
Although she was not arrested herself, Ms Wang said she later found people on social media from the same protest had been arrested and jailed.
“Even though what happened in Urumqi doesn’t have anything to do with us, we don’t know if we’re the ones that are going to be locked up for three months next,” she said.
Ms Wang said she believed Covid-testing companies were making huge profits out of the pandemic.
“The idea isn’t to get rid of Covid. Covid testing organisations are violent. They profit from all the mass testing that they do,” Ms Wang said.
There’s a saying, if someone who has the authority to conduct Covid tests holds up an umbrella, then it won’t stop raining. We don’t want this phenomenon to continue.
“If we continue this way, a lot of people won’t have a job, be able to pay for food and we will be just waiting at home to die.”
She says other young people, such as tertiary students, are being threatened by their schools and told not to protest.
“School heads are telling their students they won’t graduate if they participate in protests,” she said.
Sunday’s event was the first protest Ms Wang says she had ever attended.
She told SBS Chinese she now plans to go to more in different cities in coming days to call for more “human rights”.
“I’ll be more cautious. I’ll keep supporting this movement. I’m not going to shut up and not speak out,” she said.
Show of support for student protesters to continue from abroad
Those supporting protesters such as Mr Chu in Australia said he’d hoped for public anger in mainland China to subside soon.
As a benefactor of China’s economic reforms - a key decision by then premier Deng Xiaoping to open up the country in 1978 - Mr Chu said nobody wants societal development to deteriorate in mainland China.
“We’ve had economic independence. We have been able to set up our own companies, the ability to apply for passports and go travelling, and migrate to other countries,” Mr Chu said.
But after three years trying to persist with China’s zero Covid tolerance, he says lockdowns and quarantine measures are preventing Chinese people abroad like him from maintaining meaningful relations with family and friends inside China.
A lot of people are starting to think that this (lockdown) isn’t right.
He also said protesters were brave for taking their dissatisfaction to the streets.
“Because they know the kinds of negative outcomes their actions could have on their lives, but they still continue (protesting),” he said.
“They’re braver than my generation.
“All people like me abroad can do is post more related content on Twitter, WeChat and Facebook to let everyone know what’s going on in China.”
But did he think highlighting the issue online would work?
“No,” he replied.
“I wish for a peaceful resolution. It would be great if the rules could be relaxed a bit.”
*Ms Wang did not want to reveal their real name for personal safety reasons.
