Protests Erupt in China, calling for Xi Jinping to step down

[Haganham]

Beijing
CNN
—
Protests erupted across China on Saturday, including at universities and in Shanghai where hundreds chanted “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” in an unprecedented show of defiance against the country’s stringent and increasingly costly zero-Covid policy.
Such widespread scenes of anger and defiance are exceptionally rare in China, where the ruling Communist Party ruthlessly cracks down on all expressions of dissent. But three years into the pandemic, many people have been pushed to the brink by the government’s incessant use of lockdowns, Covid tests and quarantines. Public anger has reached a boiling point following a series of heartbreaking deaths that have been blamed on Covid control measures.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/26/china/ch ... index.html

I don't hold out any hope that the Chinese will be able to liberate themselves, but if these protests are widespread enough the economic impact may at least force the CCP to capitulate.
I also think that it's outragous that we still deal with the CPP as a legitimate government knowing all we do about them.

[Picairn]

Student protests in Tsinghua campus.

Xi Jinping went to this university.

[Emotional Support Crocodile]

I am equal parts pleased and worried by this.

[Perikuresu]

First Guangzhou (from last week) and now Shanghai today. Including the discontent with the lockdowns in Shanghai and Sanya + the protests in Hunan, it really seems like Mainland China is getting more agitated this year. Which is weird, this feels very off to me (and not because of political and ideological reasons)

[Page]

Zero-covid gives The War on Drugs a run for its money for the dumbest, deadliest, and most counter-productive policy in world history.

[Bambosaans]

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Beijing
CNN
—
Protests erupted across China on Saturday, including at universities and in Shanghai where hundreds chanted “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” in an unprecedented show of defiance against the country’s stringent and increasingly costly zero-Covid policy.
Such widespread scenes of anger and defiance are exceptionally rare in China, where the ruling Communist Party ruthlessly cracks down on all expressions of dissent. But three years into the pandemic, many people have been pushed to the brink by the government’s incessant use of lockdowns, Covid tests and quarantines. Public anger has reached a boiling point following a series of heartbreaking deaths that have been blamed on Covid control measures.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/26/china/ch ... index.html

I don't hold out any hope that the Chinese will be able to liberate themselves, but if these protests are widespread enough the economic impact may at least force the CCP to capitulate.
I also think that it's outragous that we still deal with the CPP as a legitimate government knowing all we do about them.

[Loeje]

I just saw videos from Shanghai. Hopefully something comes from this.

[Perikuresu]

Zero-covid gives The War on Drugs a run for its money for the dumbest, deadliest, and most counter-productive policy in world history.

Apparently the wumaos will accuse the West of caring about profits over lives if you criticise the Zero COVID policies

Not sure why it's still in effect, maybe Xi Jingping has put too much reputational states on eradicating COVID

I just saw videos from Shanghai. Hopefully something comes from this.

Just like with the Hong Kong, Hunan and even the discontent in Shanghai earlier this year, nothing of significance (or at least anything good) will come from this, call me pessimistic but I'm going off from what has happened

[Cuba 2022 RP]

Zero-covid gives The War on Drugs a run for its money for the dumbest, deadliest, and most counter-productive policy in world history.

No it is not. The CCP is taking it to an extreme, however, Zero-Covid is not a bad strategy. If it had been implemented worldwide when the pandemic first started, Covid would’ve been eradicated in less than a month. What’s much dumber is letting Covid spread.

[Loeje]

I just saw videos from Shanghai. Hopefully something comes from this.

Just like with the Hong Kong, Hunan and even the discontent in Shanghai earlier this year, nothing of significance (or at least anything good) will come from this, call me pessimistic but I'm going off from what has happened

I want to stay optimistic and hopeful.

[Perikuresu]

Zero-covid gives The War on Drugs a run for its money for the dumbest, deadliest, and most counter-productive policy in world history.

No it is not. The CCP is taking it to an extreme, however, Zero-Covid is not a bad strategy. If it had been implemented worldwide when the pandemic first started, Covid would’ve been eradicated in less than a month. What’s much dumber is letting Covid spread.

Not to double post but didn't the CCP try to limit the spread of information about COVID when the first cases started popping up in Wuhan? I'm pretty sure the doctor that blew the whistle got detained (unfortunately he later died of COVID, ironically he was branded a hero)

Could be the local government being corrupt, I heard the more local levels of the Chinese government are notoriously corrupt

[Cuba 2022 RP]

No it is not. The CCP is taking it to an extreme, however, Zero-Covid is not a bad strategy. If it had been implemented worldwide when the pandemic first started, Covid would’ve been eradicated in less than a month. What’s much dumber is letting Covid spread.

Not to double post but didn't the CCP try to limit the spread of information about COVID when the first cases started popping up in Wuhan? I'm pretty sure the doctor that blew the whistle got detained (unfortunately he later died of COVID, ironically he was branded a hero)

Could be the local government being corrupt, I heard the more local levels of the Chinese government are notoriously corrupt

Maybe so, but limiting the spread of information on Covid is, I believe, not integral to zero-Covid strategies. I wasn’t saying I supported the CCP, but rather that I found the criticism of zero-Covid itself unfair.

[Page]

Zero-covid gives The War on Drugs a run for its money for the dumbest, deadliest, and most counter-productive policy in world history.

Apparently the wumaos will accuse the West of caring about profits over lives if you criticise the Zero COVID policies

Not sure why it's still in effect, maybe Xi Jingping has put too much reputational states on eradicating COVID

I just saw videos from Shanghai. Hopefully something comes from this.

Just like with the Hong Kong, Hunan and even the discontent in Shanghai earlier this year, nothing of significance (or at least anything good) will come from this, call me pessimistic but I'm going off from what has happened

"Caring about profit over lives" has been the refrain of lockdown defenders all around the world for these last few years, but the fact is that lockdowns were profitable for the ultra-rich while harmful for regular people. If Jeff Bezos had his way we'd be locked down until the end of time. No doubt China's hundred or so billionaires are all doing just fine under zero-covid.

Ultimately more people are dead because of lockdowns.

[Nitrana]

I’m in full support for the protesters. However, I’m pretty sure that this will only get to the part of civil unrest, not actual revolution - things we have seen in Kazakhstan, Belarus, Russia, Hong Kong and even during the Cold War, such as the aftermath of 1968 in Czechoslovakia and the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution. Still, I’d be very happy if Winnie the Pooh actually stepped down. The question is, what would China do next?

[Unified Democratic Europe]

A good attempt for sure, but I doubt anything will come out of this.

[The Archregimancy]

Confucianism holds that it is the right of the people to rebel against an unjust ruler when the Mandate of Heaven has been withdrawn.

And natural disasters such as plagues are clear evidence of Heaven's displeasure.

[San Lumen]

I’m in full support for the protesters. However, I’m pretty sure that this will only get to the part of civil unrest, not actual revolution - things we have seen in Kazakhstan, Belarus, Russia, Hong Kong and even during the Cold War, such as the aftermath of 1968 in Czechoslovakia and the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution. Still, I’d be very happy if Winnie the Pooh actually stepped down. The question is, what would China do next?

The regime in Belarus didn’t fall.

[Page]

Zero-covid gives The War on Drugs a run for its money for the dumbest, deadliest, and most counter-productive policy in world history.

No it is not. The CCP is taking it to an extreme, however, Zero-Covid is not a bad strategy. If it had been implemented worldwide when the pandemic first started, Covid would’ve been eradicated in less than a month. What’s much dumber is letting Covid spread.

There was an extremely narrow window in which the eradication of covid was possible, and that window was already closed by New Year's Day 2020. Because people had already boarded flights to the US and Europe and everywhere else by then, the virus asymptomatically incubating inside them. By the time those people develop symptoms, they've already sneezed on somebody else.

Only a select few diseases have ever been eradicated, smallpox the only one of note, and smallpox wasn't nearly so transmissable as covid.

[Nitrana]

I’m in full support for the protesters. However, I’m pretty sure that this will only get to the part of civil unrest, not actual revolution - things we have seen in Kazakhstan, Belarus, Russia, Hong Kong and even during the Cold War, such as the aftermath of 1968 in Czechoslovakia and the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution. Still, I’d be very happy if Winnie the Pooh actually stepped down. The question is, what would China do next?

The regime in Belarus didn’t fall.

That’s why I said “not actual revolution”. Many demonstrations only get to the “civil unrest” part.

[Page]

I don't have high hopes for the Chinese people gaining freedom and I don't have high hopes for the western world holding on to the semblance of freedom it has. Techno-fuedalism is real and it's here.

[Nitrana]

I don't have high hopes for the Chinese people gaining freedom and I don't have high hopes for the western world holding on to the semblance of freedom it has. Techno-fuedalism is real and it's here.

What in the hell is techno-feudalism?

[Haganham]

Zero-covid gives The War on Drugs a run for its money for the dumbest, deadliest, and most counter-productive policy in world history.

Apparently the wumaos will accuse the West of caring about profits over lives if you criticise the Zero COVID policies

Not sure why it's still in effect, maybe Xi Jingping has put too much reputational states on eradicating COVID

It's being used a cover for control for other purposes. For example when people organized a protest of the chinese bank because they seized savings the government set the app on the protesters phones to say they were exposed, which meant they couldn't use the train system to get to the protest site.

I don't have high hopes for the Chinese people gaining freedom and I don't have high hopes for the western world holding on to the semblance of freedom it has. Techno-fuedalism is real and it's here.

What in the hell is techno-feudalism?

technocracy meets neofeudalism

[Sordhau]

I also think that it's outragous that we still deal with the CPP as a legitimate government knowing all we do about them.

...Why? We've worked with plenty of regimes just as bad if not worse than the CCP in the past. Some of which were close allies.

[Tangatarehua]

Confucianism holds that it is the right of the people to rebel against an unjust ruler when the Mandate of Heaven has been withdrawn.

And natural disasters such as plagues are clear evidence of Heaven's displeasure.

Get out of my head!

I was literally about to make a similar point. Where is King Wu of Zhou when you need him?

[Ifreann]

Gotta be pretty fucking brave to protest against the Chinese government.