Blank sheets of paper become symbol of defiance in China protests By Reuters

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese language protesters have turned to clean sheets of paper to specific their anger over COVID-19 restrictions in a uncommon, widespread outpouring of public dissent that has gone past social media to a few of China’s streets and prime universities.

Photos and movies circulated on-line confirmed college students at universities in cities together with Nanjing and Beijing holding up clean sheets of paper in silent protest, a tactic utilized in half to evade censorship or arrest.

China is adhering to its robust zero-COVID coverage even whereas a lot of the world tries to coexist with the coronavirus.

The most recent wave of anger was triggered by an residence fireplace that killed 10 individuals on Thursday in Urumqi, a far western metropolis the place some individuals had been locked down for so long as 100 days, fueling hypothesis that COVID lockdown measures might have impeded residents’ escape.

In Shanghai, a crowd that began gathering late on Saturday to carry a candlelight vigil for the Urumqi victims held up clean sheets of paper, based on witnesses and movies.

One extensively shared video mentioned to be from Saturday, which couldn’t be independently verified, confirmed a lone girl standing on the steps of the Communication College of China within the japanese metropolis of Nanjing with a bit of paper earlier than an unidentified man walks into the scene and snatches it away.

Different photos confirmed dozens of different individuals subsequently taking to the college’s steps with clean sheets of paper，illuminated in opposition to the night time sky by flashlights from their cell phones.

A person may later be seen chiding the gang for his or her protest.

“Sooner or later you’ll pay for the whole lot you probably did right now,” he mentioned, in movies seen by Reuters.

“The state may even must pay the worth for what it has finished,” individuals within the crowd shouted again.

Widespread in-person protests are uncommon in China, the place room for dissent has been all-but eradicated underneath President Xi Jinping, forcing residents largely to vent on social media the place they play cat-and-mouse video games with censors.

Comparable sheets of paper could possibly be seen held by individuals gathering on the grounds of Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua College to sing the Chinese language nationwide anthem on Sunday.

Protesters have been suggested to convey a sheet of white paper to no less than one deliberate demonstration, based on ideas being shared in discussion groups seen by Reuters.

On the top of the Hong Kong protests in 2020, activists there additionally raised clean sheets of white paper to protest to keep away from slogans banned underneath the nationwide safety legislation. Demonstrators in Moscow have additionally used them this yr to protest Russia’s warfare with Ukraine.

One Beijing resident surnamed Wang, who joined his neighbours on Saturday in pressuring native authorities to launch his residence from lockdown, described his unhappiness at listening to about “secondary disasters” involving the COVID coverage.

Wang was referring to incidents in China which provoked anger on social media, together with a pregnant girl who miscarried after being refused entry to a Xian hospital in January, the lethal crash of a bus in Guizhou ferrying individuals being quarantined, and a younger boy in Lanzhou who died from gasoline poisoning whereas underneath lockdown.

“Any of that would have occurred to me or my spouse,” he informed Reuters.

A number of Web customers confirmed solidarity by posting clean white squares or images of themselves holding clean sheets of paper on their WeChat timelines or on Weibo (NASDAQ:). By Sunday morning, the hashtag “white paper train” was blocked on Weibo, prompting customers to lament the censorship.

“Should you concern a clean sheet of paper, you might be weak inside,” one Weibo person posted.