The Chinese people’s frustration with their government’s “zero COVID” policy has reached a boiling point. Starting on November 26, protests erupted across multiple cities, with people taking to the streets and demanding an end to harsh lockdowns. Many held up pieces of blank white paper, protesting wordlessly against censorship. A few others went beyond criticizing public health restrictions, taking aim at the authoritarian political system. “We don’t want COVID tests! We want freedom!” a group of demonstrators in Shanghai chanted, repeating words from an earlier lone protestor who unfurled a banner on a bridge in Beijing. It has been more than 30 years since China has seen simultaneous and spontaneous protests that cut across social groups, coupled with calls for freedom. The last time, of course, was during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, which rattled China’s ruling elite to the core and ended in a bloody crackdown.
What will Beijing do next? Since the protests began, central health officials have signaled an easing of COVID-19 restrictions, and the cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing have relaxed their pandemic control measures almost overnight. At the same time, security forces have increased their presence across cities nationwide. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been conspicuously silent. In the absence of explicit orders from Xi, combined with an urgent need to calm the protests, these reactions from central technocrats and local authorities may be signs of improvisation rather than a plan.
