'Down with Xi': Open defiance as public protests erupt across China

Thousands were seen on Shanghai streets, even as many were bundled into police cars

China’s rare public protests opposing stringent Covid lockdowns turned political on Sunday with protestors shouting slogans against President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party.

The wave of civil disobedience, which has included protests in cities including Beijing and Urumqi, where the fire occurred, is unprecedented in mainland China since Jinping assumed power a decade ago.

In Shanghai, China’s most populous city, residents had gathered on Saturday night at Wulumuqi Road — for a candlelight vigil that turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday.

As a large group of police looked on, the crowd held up blank sheets of paper as a protest symbol against censorship.
 

They shouted, “lift lockdown for Urumqi, lift lockdown for Xinjiang, lift lockdown for all of China!”, according to a video circulated on social media.

One protester in Shanghai told The BBC that he felt “shocked and a bit excited” to see people out on the streets, calling it the first time he’d seen such large-scale dissent in China.

He said lockdowns made him feel “sad, angry and hopeless”, and had left him unable to see his unwell mother, who was undergoing cancer treatment.

A female demonstrator said that police officers when asked how they felt about the protests, and the answer was “the same as you”. But, she said, “they wear their uniforms so they’re doing their job.”

‘Xi Jinping, step down’

A large group chanted “Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping”, “Xi Jinping, step down” according to witnesses and videos, in a rare public protest against the country’s leadership.

On Sunday, police kept a heavy presence on Wulumuqi Road and cordoned off surrounding streets, making an arrest that triggered protests from onlookers, according to unverified videos seen by Reuters.

The blank sheets resistance

Hundreds of people had gathered by evening again near one of the cordons, holding blank sheets of paper.

Similar sheets of paper could be seen held by people gathering on the grounds of Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University as they held peaceful protest during which they sang the national anthem, according to media posted on social media.

In one video, which Reuters was unable to verify, a Tsinghua university student called on a cheering crowd to speak out. “If we don’t dare to speak out because we are scared of being smeared, our people will be disappointed in us. As a Tsinghua university student, I will regret it for all my life.” 

One student who saw the Tsinghua protest described feeling taken aback by the protest at one China’s most elite universities, and Xi’s alma mater.

“People there were very passionate, the sight of it was impressive,” the student said, declining to be named given the sensitivity of the matter.

Blank sheets for peaceful protest
 

Blank sheets of paper in silent protest is a tactic used in part to evade censorship or arrest. 
 

The Hong Kong protests in 2020 saw activists raising blank sheets of white paper to avoid slogans banned under the national security law. Demonstrators in Moscow have also used them this year to protest Russia’s war with Ukraine.