China’s greatest uprising since Tiananmen Square
For over a week, the world has been seeing videos of protests in China in which Chinese citizens rallied against the CCP’s inability to control and contain COVID with reasonable policies and procedures. Those protests have since expanded into anti-government and anti-Xi protests, and they are no longer taking place in isolated cities — it is a nationwide movement.
I recently wrote an article about the resurging COVID crisis in China, the lockdowns that followed, and the protests that erupted because of it. You can read that article at the link below.
What you need to know is that China has, since the beginning of the COVID outbreak, has failed to contain or control the virus whereas much of the world seems beyond it. In order to attempt to get a grip on COVID, the CCP has perpetually executed some absurd and malicious practices, such as separating families and placing them in containment camps, forcibly locking people in apartments (in which they starved to death), or making them wear full-body hazmat gear.
China’s limits know no bounds, and the Chinese people have apparently reached their limit. It is uncertain where the protests shifted from “anti-COVID lockdown” to anti-Xi/anti-CCP,” but a video surfaced on social media of a fire that killed 10 people. The people were unable to escape because they were locked into their living quarters. Ten deaths in only the official number released by the CCP. Apparently, the CCP also told witnesses to not discuss or release information about the event that contradicted the official narrative.
It is apparent that given the CCP is trying to censor the protests — they are beating protestors and blocking internet and messaging apps — they are fearful of two things:
- Fearful that the protests get exposure and therefore grow (in China specifically but also abroad) and
- Fearful that enforcers and police view the protests as uncontainable, and potentially stop resisting protestors or join them
Under Xi’s rule, there have been no protests at this scale and certainly none that are so openly anti-Xi and anti-CCP. China does not share the same rights to freedom of speech as we do in the US, and they do not share the ability to see what is happening in the world due to censorship. Protests of this nature are a genuine sign of distaste for the current regime and because they are so threatening, Xi and the CCP are confronted with a decision-making moment.
Observers are really waiting for the CCP’s next move. Perhaps China will follow the route of Iran, and will double down by authorizing the use of deadly force against protestors. Alternatively, the CCP may let the protests continue and hopefully die down. The path of escalation, however, would be akin to the Tiananmen Square incident — a moment in history that is a major blemish for the CCP.
China is such a closed off society, so watching this event develop is surely going to be a major focus in the media. If you’d like to keep up with it, follow The Countermeasure on Medium or join the newsletter (below).
