Why W people are protesting,

How did we get here?

Frustrations with the zero-Covid policy have been rumbling for a while. As the rest of the world returns to something resembling normal life, China’s population is still being subjected to sudden harsh lockdowns of areas ranging from individual shops to entire counties, often over just a few cases.

In September, a bus carrying people to a Guizhou quarantine centre at night crashed, killing 27 people. The death toll dwarfed the two Covid-related deaths reported by the province since the pandemic

began. Last month in Zhengzhou, thousands of workers in an Apple iPhone factory clashed with riot police and tore down barricades, in part due to Covid restrictions. Across locked down cities, residents shared rumours and reports of suicides and other deaths they linked to the enforcement of zero-Covid.

As the list of incidents grew, so too did people’s impatience and scepticism, despite authorities’ attempts to censor information and dissent. Then last week at least 10 people were killed in a building fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, which had been under lockdown for about 100 days. People blamed the lockdown for the deaths. Their anger was exacerbated by an official’s response, which appeared to blame the residents for not rescuing themselves, and last Friday the first protests of the weekend were held in the city. Videos showed people in a plaza singing China’s national anthem with its lyric: “Rise up, those who refuse to be slaves.”

By last Sunday, demonstrations had spread to cities including Beijing, Shanghai again, Chengdu, Wuhan, Lanzhou, Nanjing and dozens of university campuses.

What are the blank pieces of white paper?

These have become a symbol of the burgeoning protests. Space to safely express dissent has been effectively eliminated under the authoritarian rule of Xi Jinping. The white sheets of paper are a nod to the denial of free speech and rampant censorship. A protest at the elite Tsinghua university in Beijing began with one student holding a single sheet near the campus canteen. It was taken away by staff, but she remained in position, according to reports, and was soon joined by dozens, and then hundreds of others.

In a video purportedly filmed in Liangmaqiao, Beijing, a woman criticised the state media coverage of the “man-made” tragedy in Urumqi. “It’s all lies, it’s all silence,” she said. “We launched the blank paper remembrance movement. Do we say anything on the paper? No. All accusations are in our hearts. All thoughts are in our hearts.”

What is happening to protesters?

Police have detained protesters, including at least one foreign journalist. The second night of protests in Shanghai was met with a heavy police response, and the BBC said its Shanghai-based cameraman, Edward Lawrence, was detained and beaten before being released. Police said only that they detained him for his own good, in case he caught Covid from the crowd, the BBC said.

Why are these protests significant?

Observers have said these protests are unlike anything they have seen in decades, perhaps back to the deadly crackdown on student rallies in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

“Because they are so synchronised in terms of scope and the size of the crowds across these cities, it’s truly a remarkable development,” says Prof Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. Yang says everyone is relating to incidents like the Urumqi fire and bus crash, because it could happen to any of them.

A modern element of these protests is the pushback against online censorship. China’s internet firewall and armies of information moderators are extraordinarily effective, but have perhaps reached the limits of people’s patience. Citizens are playing cat and mouse with censors, finding creative ways to share videos and posts about the protests, express solidarity or complain about authorities.

What will happen next?

Protests in China are not rare, but the scale and spread of these ones certainly are. And the ask – an end to stringent zero-Covid – is not something the government is willing to give right now. Eyes are on whether the protests continue and how authorities respond. There will probably be heavy consequences for those identified as protesters. State media has been silent on the protests but has published strongly worded calls to “unswervingly adhere” to zero-Covid.

Yang notes a variation in local authorities’ response to protests so far, with coincidental loosening of restrictions in some areas, and heavy handed police action in others. He also says there are some changes the central government could make to appease people, or they could ease pressure by scapegoating local officials or private companies involved in the pandemic response.

“They could provide much clearer guidance, for example how and when China could exit zero-Covid. To this point the messaging has been frustrating and confusing, even to officials,” he says. “The challenge is this virus is not going away.”