Chinese Whispers: where China's protests go next

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Comparisons with 1989’s Tiananmen Square protests are too often evoked when it comes to talking about civil disobedience in China. Even so, this weekend’s protests have been historic. It’s the first time since the zero Covid policy started that people across the country have simultaneously marched against the government, their fury catalysed by the deaths of ten people in a locked down high rise building in Xinjiang. Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Xi’An, Urumqi, Nanjing (Cindy Yu's home city) have all seen protests over the weekend. Most of them attack the zero Covid policy, but some have called out ‘Down with Xi Jinping’.

After two days of protests, these cities, especially Shanghai, now see heavy police presence, with the authorities searching phones of any seeming troublemakers. This weekend’s burst of free speech may already have been snuffed out. Can the protestors sustain their momentum given the tight grip of the state?

Cindy is joined by Professor Jeff Wasserstrom at UC Irvine, an expert on protests in the mainland and Hong Kong, and Isabel Hilton, a long time China watcher and founder of China Dialogue.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Subscribe to The Spectator in our Black Friday sale and get the next 12 weeks of the magazine, in print and online, for just £12.
0:07.9	And we'll also throw in a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label Whiskey worth £30, absolutely free.
0:13.9	Hurry though, this offer ends on Monday.
0:16.8	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash Friday.
0:30.1	Thank you. Go to spectator.com.uk, forward slash Friday. Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu. Every episode, I'll be talking to
0:35.0	journalists, experts and long-time China watchers about the latest in Chinese politics, society and more.
0:41.4	There'll be a smattering of history to catch you up on the background knowledge and some context as well.
0:46.1	How do the Chinese see these issues?
0:49.1	People very often and very easily think of 1989 the Tianan Square protests whenever civil disobedience
0:55.6	in China is talked about or happens. And often those references are too easily made.
1:02.2	Even so, this weekend's protests across the country in China have been historic. It's the first
1:07.9	time since the zero COVID policy started that people across
1:11.6	cities have simultaneously marched against government. Their fury catalyzed by the deaths of
1:16.8	10 people in a lockdown high-rise building in Xinjiang that happened last week. Beijing,
1:22.5	Shanghai, Wuhan, Sian, Urimcchi, Chengdu, Nanjing, my home city, have all seen protests over the weekend.
1:29.5	And most of them attack the zero COVID policy, but some have also said, down with Xi Jinping.
1:34.9	So today we're recording on Monday 8pm UK time.
1:38.1	It seems like the protests have been snuffed out.
1:40.1	There's heavy police presence in the protest hotspots in major cities.
1:43.8	Passersby are having their phones checked for foreign social media apps like Twitter and Telegram.
1:48.9	And some of the ringleaders, although it doesn't seem like an largely organized movement, have been arrested.
1:54.7	Nevertheless, how monumental is this development in the history of China's protests?
	...

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