‘Down with Xi Jinping’: Why Chinese language protesters are holding clean sheets of paper

Protests in China are uncommon, so the present protests towards the Xi authorities’s zero-COVID-19 coverage are all of the extra conspicuous globally. Public discontent snowballed into public dissent after the demise of 10 folks in an condominium hearth in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Individuals imagine that lockdown measures delayed rescue operations. Now, as protests mushroom throughout the nation, protesters have turned to clean sheets of paper to precise their anger. However what does the white clean paper stand for? 

It is a type of silent protest to evade censorship or arrests and is an oft-used expression. In 2020 in Hong Kong, activists held up clean sheets of paper to protest the nationwide safety regulation. In 2022, dissenters in Moscow held up clean sheets to protest the Russia-Ukraine struggle. Now, pictures of protesters at universities in Nanjing and Beijing have been noticed holding white sheets of paper in silent protests.

On Saturday, a crowd gathered to carry a candlelight vigil in Shanghai for the Urumqi victims. They held up white sheets of paper. Likewise, on Sunday, protesters at Beijing’s Tsinghua College and alongside the third Ring Highway close to Liangma River had been noticed holding white paper sheets. 

The candlelight vigil changed into a protest and other people shouted, “Elevate lockdown for Urumqi, raise lockdown for Xinjiang, raise lockdown for all of China”, whereas some shouted, “Down with the Chinese language Communist Get together, down with Xi Jinping”.

One video that has since gone viral exhibits a lone girl holding a white sheet of paper earlier than a person walks in to grab it away. 

One protester advised Reuters that the white paper represents all the things they wish to say however can’t. 

Web customers additionally confirmed solidarity by posting clean white squares or photographs of themselves holding clean sheets of paper. The hashtag ‘white paper train’ was blocked on Weibo by Sunday morning. 

Protests don’t happen steadily in China as President Xi Jingping’s authorities has virtually fully muzzled dissent. Individuals are compelled to take to social media to protest.

China’s zero-COVID-19 coverage, whilst a lot of the world is attempting to coexist with the virus, has left its residents disgruntled. The town of Urumqi, the place the condominium hearth occurred, has been below lockdown for so long as 100 days. 

(With company inputs)

Additionally learn: ‘Xi Jinping step down’: Protests flare over China’s zero-Covid coverage; all you must know