A year after historic demonstrations against China’s zero-Covid policy that surprised authorities in Shanghai, only a subtly increased police presence at key intersections betrays fear.
Unannounced and repeated exit restrictions, almost daily large-scale PCR tests and anti-Covid measures disrupted the everyday lives of Chinese people for almost three years, until the end of 2022.
A deadly fire in Urumqi (Xinjiang, northwest China), where health restrictions have reportedly hampered relief efforts, sparked demonstrations in several cities a year ago on a scale not seen since 1989.
On the night of November 26-27, 2022, hundreds of people in Shanghai held a vigil on Wulumuqi Street, the Mandarin name for the city of Ürümqi.
“The atmosphere was sad but also encouraging,” recalls Li, a protester whose first name has been changed for security reasons.
Originally a tribute to the ten victims of the fire, the rally morphed into calls for the abolition of the zero-Covid policy and, rarely in China, for the resignation of President Xi Jinping or even the overthrow of the ruling Communist Party.
Since then, “everyone seems to have moved on, no one is talking about it,” Li told AFP.
“After the lifting of zero Covid, everyone returned to normal life,” notes the young woman of about twenty, who says she is still “marked” by the events of the last year.
As the anniversary approached, police warned them against further demonstrations.
Anti-diet slogans
This spontaneous gathering then spread to several cities, including Guangzhou (central), Chengdu (southwest) and Beijing, despite the usual impressive police presence and an armada of surveillance cameras.
In silence, participants, mostly 18- to 35-year-olds, held up blank white A4 sheets of paper to implement censorship.
“It is not surprising that demonstrations are occurring in response to the zero-Covid restrictions,” says sinologist Diana Fu from the University of Toronto in Canada. What was, however, was “the brutal anti-regime rhetoric” with anti-power slogans, notes Ms. Fu.
Protests are not uncommon in China, but rarely involve politics, a particularly sensitive issue that exposes participants to severe reprisals.
Freedom of expression, thought Ms. Li[t] being able to live without it because it had no influence on it [sa] Everyday life”. But Covid has changed everything, she says.
In particular, the draconian detention of Shanghai for two months in the spring of 2022, in which she felt “like a prisoner”.
“Violent”
“People only demonstrate for their rights when it directly affects them. “That’s why there were so many people last year,” she swears.
However, the majority of participants did not want “political reforms,” said researcher Chenchen Zhang from the University of Durham (UK) at the time.
Huang Yicheng, 27, was briefly detained by police before fleeing to Germany.
Those who wanted political change were under “severe pressure,” he told AFP.
“The protest was like a strong tide,” assures Mr. Huang.
But when health restrictions were lifted, “like fish when the water recedes, we were stranded on the shore,” he laments.
China’s well-oiled security apparatus was also deployed to suppress the emerging movement.
According to Li, the protester, police did not hesitate to use force on the second night of demonstrations in Shanghai. “They dragged a girl into a police car. It was so violent that I can’t stop thinking about that scene.
Lifting of restrictions
A week later, Li was called to the police station and confronted with a photo of herself taken during the demonstration.
The police “required me to describe in great detail what I had done and why I was there (…).”
For his part, Huang Yicheng claims that he was dragged to the ground by the police. He managed to escape, but claims he saw many women being beaten that evening.
William Nee of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) estimated that around a hundred people were deported or detained following protests across the country.
Most have since been released, except for Kamile Wayit, a 19-year-old Uyghur student, according to his statement.
China’s Ministry of Public Security did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Ten days after the protests began, China eased many of its previously inflexible anti-Covid restrictions, a reversal that Li and Huang Yicheng attribute to their mobilization.
China lifted most of its health restrictions and gradually reopened its borders in January 2023.