On the night of November 27th, a young woman in Beijing named Tao Juxing did something

you can almost never do in China.

She went to a rally.

At least 10 people had died in a fire in western China, and many people were blaming their

deaths on the country's severe COVID lockdowns.

Rallys were popping up all over the country.

Tao wanted to join in.

And she said in her WeChat group with some friends, should we check out whether there

is a rally in Beijing, should we do something?

It was the spur of a moment decision.

Our colleague Shen Liu has written about Tao.

She says Tao and her friends had never been to a rally before.

Publicly showing your discontent of authoritarian rule of COVID restrictions could get people

in big trouble.

And Chinese people haven't publicly protested since 1989.

But that night, Tao and her friends decided to go.

The rally was built as a candle light vigil for the people in Xinjiang who died, and they

were really surprised.

So many people were out mourning the dead.

Hundreds of people were on the streets.

And they brought flowers and candles and sent a Chinese lament farewell.

So it was a peaceful rally, but they were also very electrified and empowered by such

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