After almost three years of severe restrictions within the Covid Zero policy in the country, the Chinese have held historic demonstrations in recent days, in different regions of the Asian giant. Due to the repressions of the Chinese dictatorship, it may be too early to think about the birth of a great pro-democracy movement. Still, it is the mark of an agitation that could give a lot of headaches to Xi Jinping, who, in October, changed the country’s rules in his absence to guarantee his third term – and for an indefinite period.
The economic hardships generated by the Covid Zero policy amplify the local dissatisfaction of the Chinese to a national scale, uniting workers and traders in search of subsistence, in addition to an urban youth frustrated by the restrictions on freedoms of the Xi era.
On Sunday morning (27), demonstrators in Shanghai called for the Chinese dictator’s resignation. A rare display of hostility against the regime, which was repeated elsewhere in the country, notably in Beijing, where students from the prestigious Tsinghua University gathered to demand “democracy and the rule of law”.
In Chongqing, a Chinese man shouted in the street: “There is only one disease in the world: lack of freedom and poverty”. In Urumqi, where the population has been subjected to more than three months of a new confinement, mass demonstrations broke out on Thursday () after ten people were killed in a fire of a building whose exits were blocked due to Chinese health policy rules.
In Zhengzhou, workers at Foxconn, Apple’s subcontractor, increased the protests that were already taking place for salary bonuses, and employees complain also the poor living conditions due to circulation restrictions due to the fight against the coronavirus.
Paulo Roberto da Silva Gomes Filho, Army reserve colonel and master in defense and strategy studies at the National University of Defense, in Beijing, recalled that, despite the Chinese regime being authoritarian, demonstrations are frequent in the country, but usually take place against local authorities and involve more specific issues in the countryside or cities. “What is unusual and surprising about these protests that are now taking place in China is the fact that they are directed against the central government and its policy against Covid-19”, he described.
Especially this past weekend, protesters were directly chanting against Xi Jinping and his policies. Banners called for the dictator’s resignation, for the end of the “lifetime mandate” and mandatory mass testing. “We don’t need tests, but freedom”, said posters of the demonstrators, in addition to “Give us back the cinema and stop censorship”.
Regime repression
Faced with the movements, the Chinese regime imposes itself through arrests, violence and censorship. In Chinese social networks, part of the information about these demonstrations was deleted. And, despite state control over the release of the number of people who have been arrested during the demonstrations so far, some news has spread. The BBC reported the arrest of a journalist from the group covering the protests. According to the communication vehicle, Ed Lawrence was mistreated during his arrest.
For Gomes Filho, as the protests advance, the Chinese dictatorship’s repression should increase, also intensifying media censorship of communication and social media. “The memory of the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square is very present among the leaders of the Communist Party of China, who will certainly do what they consider necessary so that an episode of that nature does not happen again”, analysed.
In this scenario, the expert believes that there is, so far, no data indicating that these protests could be the birth of a pro-democracy movement in China. “At least not in the way that democracy is understood in the West”, he assessed.
Demonstrations reflect social and economic crisis
If social pressure does not is enough for Xi Jinping to curb restrictions on movement and trade in the country within the Covid-19 control policy, the economy will be able to play this role. China’s growth forecast for this year is only 3%, a drop of more than 5 percentage points compared to the previous year and a slowdown with worldwide consequences.
A reality that puts an end to the Chinese economic boom, seals the crisis in the country’s real estate sector and starts a snowball that, if not contained, could jeopardize the stability of the Chinese Communist Party.
As much as Xi may ignore the protesters, you cannot ignore the message they take to the streets: that the economy is a Chinese concern and that the Covid Zero policy has a great influence on it. “Certainly what puts the most pressure on policy change are the economic repercussions”, concluded Gomes Filho.