It is an extremely rare fact that occurred in Beijing (China), Thursday, October 13: according to several photos and videos published by journalists on the spot, a demonstrator displayed a banner denouncing China’s health policy in terms of Covid-19 as well as the presidency of Xi Jinping, who is about to begin a third term at the end of the congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Photos online purport to show a rare protest in Beijing’s Haidian district just ahead of the 20th Party Congress.
Extraordinary given pre-Congress security + monitoring
Among the slogans: ‘Don’t want PCR tests, want to eat’
‘Don’t want a Cultural revolution, want reforms’ pic.twitter.com/9RwyDb36RM
— Bill Birtles (@billbirtles) October 13, 2022
The facts occurred on Thursday morning, on the Sitong Bridge, northwest of the Chinese capital. A man burned tires and posted two banners. On the first, it is written: “We don’t want Covid tests, we want to eat; we don’t want confinement, but to be free, not to lie, but dignity (…) No longer to be slaves to be citizens.” The second contains the inscriptions: “Students, workers, people… remove dictator Xi Jinping.”
Quickly, the images of this public protest against the regime, an extremely rare event, were shared on Chinese social networks, such as WeChat or Weibo, but they were quickly deleted due to censorship, according to Internet users. As of Thursday evening, protest banners were removed from Sitong Bridge and police said nothing “unusual” had happened, reports France 24which devotes an article to this event.
Lhas BBC (in English) reports that the protester had also published a manifesto on the specialized site ResearchGate, but that the latter was removed from the platform. In addition, Internet users have praised the courage of Peng Lifa, the name of this activist. Some have also called for the massive dissemination of his personal data in order to save his life, as explained by a journalist from International mail.
Chinese people are calling for the massive dissemination of the personal data of Mr. Peng Lifa (who hung banners on the Sitong Bridge in Beijing, calling for the dismissal of Xi Jinping) in the hope of saving his life. https://t.co/8DOqdyqC8C
— Zhulin Zhang (@ZhangZhulin) October 15, 2022
Other Internet users have finally called for the launch of a kitty to allow his family to pay any legal costs that may be incurred after such an act, which took place a few days before the CCP congress, at the end of which Xi Jinping must begin a third mandate at the head of the country.