(Shanghai) The Chinese authorities were trying on Monday to stem the movement of anger against health restrictions and in favor of more freedoms, demonstrations on a historic scale and supported abroad, in particular by the United Nations.
By its extent, the mobilization evokes the pro-democracy rallies of 1989, harshly repressed. It is the culmination of a popular discontent that has been simmering for months in China, one of the last countries in the world to apply a strict “zero COVID-19” policy.
Abroad, these demonstrations have received marks of support, in particular from the President of the United States Joe Biden.
“The White House supports the right to peaceful protest,” Biden said in an exchange with the press, arguing that he “keeps himself informed of what is happening” “up close”.
Earlier, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jeremy Laurence called on “the authorities to respond to the protests in accordance with international human rights laws and standards”.
In Washington, John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, a body attached to the American president, did not comment on the substance of these claims: “These demonstrators speak for themselves” and signified the will to “keep the channels of communication open” with the Chinese authorities.
The State Department, for its part, stressed that “we have long said that everyone has the right to peaceful protest, here in the United States and around the world”. “This includes China,” he said in a statement.
Same tone in Germany where the president said “hope that the authorities in China will respect the right to freedom of expression and demonstration”. “I understand that people express their impatience and their grievances in the streets,” said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a moral authority in his country, in an interview with the Deutsche Welle media.
On Sunday, a crowd of demonstrators, responding to calls on social networks, took to the streets in particular in Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan, catching the police off guard.
PHOTO ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police block a street in Shanghai on Sunday.
Among the slogans chanted in unison: “No COVID-19 tests, we are hungry! », « Xi Jinping, resign! CCP (Chinese Communist Party, editor’s note), withdraw! or “No to confinements, we want freedom”.
The deadly fire in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province (Northwest), has catalyzed the anger of many Chinese for whom health restrictions have hampered relief.
They were finally relaxed in this city where, from Tuesday, the inhabitants will be able to travel by bus to do their shopping.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused “forces with hidden motivations” of linking the fire to “the local response to COVID-19”, according to its spokesman Zhao Lijian. Under “the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and (with) the support of the Chinese people, our fight against COVID-19 will be a success,” he said.
PHOTO PROVIDED, VIA REUTERS
Between 200 and 300 students from the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing also demonstrated on their campus on Sunday.
But the demonstrations have also brought out demands for more political freedoms and the departure of President Xi Jinping, barely reappointed for an unprecedented third term.
Police presence
Monday morning, a police presence was visible in Beijing and Shanghai, near the places of gatherings the day before, noted AFP journalists.
In Beijing, protesters were questioned by police by phone after attending rallies, one of them told AFP on Monday.
In Shanghai, one of the busy streets was now surrounded by palisades to prevent any further gatherings. During the day, three people were arrested near Urumqi Street where a demonstration took place on Sunday.
Clashes had opposed Sunday police and demonstrators. A BBC journalist in China was arrested and “beaten by the police” in Shanghai, according to this media.
The world’s largest public service media alliance, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), on Monday condemned “in the strongest possible terms the intolerable intimidation and attacks against journalists and production of EBU members in China”.
In Beijing, a demonstration scheduled for late Monday was discouraged by the heavy police presence. Police vehicles lined the road leading to Sitong Bridge.
In this sector now patrolled by the police, a young woman in her twenties, who came to jog, told AFP on Monday that she had followed the rally the day before via social networks. “It sent the signal that people are fed up with these excessive restrictions,” said the young woman, on condition of anonymity.
In Hong Kong, a territory rocked by pro-democracy protests in 2019, dozens of people gathered at the Chinese University on Monday in a show of solidarity with the demonstrators and in tribute to the victims of the fire in Urumqi, AFP noted. .
Others unfurled banners and waved flowers in the Central district, the financial heart of the city.
On Chinese social media, any information about the protests appeared to have been erased on Monday.
On the Weibo platform, a sort of Chinese Twitter, searches for “Liangma River” and “Urumqi Street” yielded no results related to the mobilization.
” Boiling point ”
Chinese authorities’ strict control over information and health restrictions on travel within the country make it difficult to verify the total number of protesters over the weekend.
But such a widespread uprising is extremely rare in China, given the crackdown on any form of opposition to the government.
Demonstrations also took place in Guangzhou, Chengdu but also in Wuhan, a city in the center of the country where the world’s first case of COVID-19 was detected almost three years ago.
The People’s Daily published a text on Monday warning of “paralysis” and “weariness” in the face of the “zero COVID-19” policy, without calling for an end to it.
“People have reached a boiling point now, because there is no clear direction on the way forward to end the zero COVID-19 policy,” says Alfred Wu Muluan, China policy expert at the National University of Singapore. “The party underestimated the anger of the population,” he adds.
The protests have worried investors. And Asian stock markets opened sharply lower on Monday.
From Shanghai to Urumqi: eight months of protests
Discontent has been brewing in China for months, culminating in recent days in an unprecedented wave of protests against the draconian “zero COVID-19” policy that Beijing has enforced for nearly three years.
Here are the main events related to COVID-19 observed since the beginning of the year.
Voices from Shanghai
In April, a six-minute video montage of clips of desperate Shanghai residents quickly went viral on Chinese social media, before being censored.
They told of their suffering in the face of the severe confinement imposed, in March and April.
The montage had been released in multiple formats in an attempt to evade censorship. It was the biggest wave of online protests since the February 2020 death of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang, a coronavirus whistleblower.
Student demonstrations
In May, hundreds of students at an elite Beijing University campus protested against strict lockdown measures that allowed university staff greater freedom of movement than students.
This rare protest was later defused after authorities agreed to ease some restrictions.
Campuses across China have been on lockdown for most of the pandemic.
Against Henan Banks
From May to July, hundreds of bank account holders in Henan province protested in the central regional capital Zhengzhou after deposits were frozen at several rural banks.
Some reported that their health passport code inexplicably turned red upon arrival in Zhengzhou, preventing them from traveling, and accused authorities of tampering with the system.
The protests in Tibet
In October, in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, hundreds of people staged an unusual demonstration to protest the lockdown that has lasted nearly three months.
Hundreds of people, mostly ethnic Han Chinese migrant workers, were seen marching through the streets asking for permission to return home.
The protests were geolocated in an area near the Potala Palace, the traditional residence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.
On a bridge in Beijing
Shortly before the opening of the Chinese Communist Party Congress, a protester draped a Beijing bridge with two banners.
“No COVID-19 tests, I want to make a living. No cultural revolution, I want reforms. No confinement, I want freedom, ”proclaimed the first. The second called on citizens to go on strike and drive out “the traitorous dictator Xi Jinping”.
Canton clashes
In November, clashes pitted demonstrators against the police in the metropolis of Canton (South), after the extension of confinement due to an upsurge in infections.
Videos on social media, verified by AFP, showed hundreds of people taking to the streets, some tearing down the cords intended to prevent confined residents from leaving their homes. “No more tests,” chanted the demonstrators, some of whom threw projectiles at the police.
Clashes at Foxconn
Large-scale protests erupted at the world’s largest iPhone factory in central Zhengzhou city, which has been on lockdown since October.
Hundreds of workers at Taiwanese giant Foxconn’s factory protested over disputes over their wages and working conditions.
Violent clashes took place between the demonstrators and the police. Foxconn then offered new hires a $1,400-equivalent bonus to terminate their contracts and leave, in an effort to stamp out the unrest.
Urumqi uprising
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, on Friday evening to demand an end to the restrictive measures that have affected the region for three months.
Images partially verified by AFP show hundreds of people massed outside the headquarters of the city authorities chanting: “Remove the containment measures! »
The protests came after ten people were killed in a building fire on Thursday. Internet users claimed that the containment measures had prevented residents from leaving their homes in time and delayed access for help.
These mass demonstrations have since sparked a wave of protests and vigils across the country, in major cities like Shanghai or on Chinese campuses.