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China: facing the demonstrators, Beijing tightens the screw

2022-11-29T09:39:47.084Z


Xi Jinping's regime is deploying the security arsenal to try to prevent the spread of mobilization against its zero Covid strategy.


Correspondent in Asia,

In Shanghai, the great wall of amnesia already surrounds the sidewalk of “

Wulumuqi lu

”.

Blue plastic palisades almost two meters high were hastily erected by the authorities under the plane trees of this street where an unprecedented demonstration took place defying the draconian zero Covid strategy of President Xi Jinping, this weekend. end, in the heart of China's first city.

A dozen police vehicles lock down the area, and law enforcement forces passers-by away, asking them to erase any photos.

Several people were taken away by the police.

The communist regime is trying to prevent the return of angry demonstrators to this crossroads where a man had dared to shout the blasphemous slogan,

"Xi Jinping resign!"

in front of an overheated crowd, Saturday, November 26.

Authorities have even taken down some street signs displaying the thoroughfare's name meaning Urumqi, in Mandarin, the capital of Xinjiang, where a deadly fire has sparked the largest nationwide protest since Tiananmen, in 1989. The ten victims could not be rescued due to strict containment measures in force, accuse numerous online comments, illustrating unprecedented popular anger since the death of Doctor Li Wenliang, whistleblower of the Covid epidemic, in 2020.

The Party is trying to stifle protest

Taken aback by this torrent of anger, the power tightens the screw, to stifle the dispute, by having recourse to the security paraphernalia which this "Red Prince" used without moderation during the first decade of his reign.

Erase the memory to prevent any pilgrimage, intimidate the crowds, and imprison the ringleaders to reassert the Party's iron fist.

A heavy police force has occupied the scene of protests in at least 18 cities this weekend since Monday, particularly in Beijing, along the Langmahe River, and near the Sitong Bridge.

And the security services trace the participants back to their homes.

I had a visit from the police this morning, to ask me what I did on the evening of November 27,

” confided to

Figaro

Yuanye *, a Beijing protester, summoned to the station on Tuesday November 29.

The young woman who wore a mask during the rally suspects that the telephone data allowed the services to locate her.

"

I'm scared, but I'm fine

," said another participant in the demonstration in the capital.

Read alsoChinese demonstrations of anger do not go unnoticed in Taiwan

Any reference to the incidents is methodically censored online and in the press by a communist regime that managed to impose state amnesia on the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters. “

The revolt is impressive.

The crackdown is expected to be fierce in the coming days

,” said Chen Gang, a researcher at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

The gatherings of a few thousand people across the country are tiny compared to a population of 1.4 billion, but this is the first nationwide movement in four decades.

A stone in the garden of the leader who has just snatched a third undivided term at the head of the second world economy, in October.

Continuation of the health policy

Many universities have just anticipated the New Year holidays, encouraging their students to return to their hometowns prematurely, in the name of

“epidemic prevention

”.

The prestigious Tsinghua, where Xi studied in his time, has even been organizing shuttles to the capital's stations and airports since Sunday in the hope of emptying the campus, the scene of extraordinary demonstrations.

Read alsoFaced with Xi's authoritarianism and the "zero Covid" strategy, Chinese fortunes take shelter in Singapore

On the health front, Beijing boldly reaffirmed its implacable strategy of eradicating Omicron, disputed in the street, during a press conference of the National Health Commission (CNH), Tuesday, showering the hopes of an aggiornamento .

When a foreign reporter made reference to the protests, the official Xinhua news agency's app abruptly cut off the broadcast of the meeting.

But Beijing intends to “

accelerate

” the vaccination of the elderly, the Achilles heel of the giant, while only 65% ​​of the over 80s are vaccinated.

The fight against the Covid “

will be a success, under the leadership of the Party

“, swore Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, evading the demonstrations before making a veiled allusion to foreign interference in a context of assumed Sino-American rivalry.

US President Joe Biden is “

closely following

” the events and recalled the right to “

peacefully demonstrate everywhere, including in China

”, according to the White House.

*

Name has been changed.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-11-29

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