2 hours ago
image source,Social media
Protests erupted in Beijing, China against leader Xi Jinping and China’s anti-epidemic policies on Thursday (October 13). Two huge protest signs appeared on a busy overpass in the northwest of the capital.
This scene was filmed by many pedestrians and residents nearby, and many videos and photos were widely disseminated on social media, but most of the content was quickly blocked by Chinese social media platforms.
Public protests directed at top management are rare in China, as they often result in severe punishment, and the event is made even more sensitive by the fact that the Communist Party is about to call a major political meeting at the 20th National Congress in three days. .
image source,Social media
The video widely circulated on social media showed two giant banners with red letters on a white background hanging on either side of the blue sign on the “Sitong Bridge”.
A banner reads: “No nucleic acid, no need to eat, no prohibition, no freedom, no lie, no dignity, no Cultural Revolution, no reform, no leader, no vote, no slave, no citizen.”
Another short banner, with more direct criticism, called Xi a “thief of the dictatorship” and called for his resignation.
Multiple videos from different angles showed black smoke rising from the bridge and a man chanting slogans through a loudspeaker.
The protests appeared to have been quickly suppressed by the authorities. The footage shows police cars and fire trucks arriving on the bridge and putting out the fire. There were more than a dozen police officers on site.
Bloomberg reporters came to Sitong Bridge after the accident and saw burn marks on the bridge deck. The BBC team arrived at the scene around 4pm on Thursday and saw a significant increase in police deployment nearby.
Censorship on social media also took place quickly. A search for “Sitongqiao” on Weibo only revealed content posted by two official accounts a year ago.
Many Chinese netizens claimed on Twitter and other international social media that their accounts had been blocked for sharing images related to the incident on WeChat and Weibo.
With the 20th National Congress approaching, the authorities are sparing no effort to publicize Xi Jinping’s exploits to pave the way for his third term, but the protests show growing civil dissatisfaction under the strict epidemic prevention policy. ” zero”.
It is not yet known where the protester is and the exact cause of the accident, nor how he managed to hang the banner on the busy bridge.
Police near the protest scene
Beijing is usually heavily guarded when major political events approach, with patrols and surveillance cameras in the streets.
The authorities required all couriers bound for Beijing to undergo a “secondary security check”. Some printers have also been asked to refuse to print petitions and other materials for signatories, Reuters reported.
In China, government critics are often heavily censored, and when such criticism is aimed at the country’s leaders, the punishment is often much more severe. In 2020 Ren Zhiqiang, a Chinese entrepreneur who had written harshly against Xi Jinping, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for corruption and extortion.
In 2018, a woman spilled ink on a propaganda poster featuring a portrait of Xi Jinping in front of a building in Shanghai to express her dissatisfaction, but she was taken away by the authorities and her whereabouts are unknown.
