Fires, Smokescreens, and China's Lockdown Protests

A single, blank sheet of paper. What seems like a mundane stationary tool has evolved into a recognized and powerful symbol of resistance. It’s the sheer simplicity of the symbol that speaks, as random and spontaneous as the unorganized protests taking place among the din of traffic. It’s the symbol clutched in the hands of thousands taking to the streets of China’s cities to boldly oppose stifling COVID-19 restrictions fueled after a deadly fire in Xinjiang. China’s lockdown protests have followed the typical revolutionary-esque pattern; injustice, outcries, viva la revolucion. But far from just a response against mounting injustices, the protests are a piece of a much larger puzzle that has the power to permanently alter the political fabric of the nation. Protests of this sheer influence and mobilization are rare in authoritarian China. And the implications of outrage against the government pose questions of a political awakening and overturning an ingrained regime. What’s incredibly unique about these protests is its universal resonation with the citizens across the nation due to anger over lockdown restrictions; the tragic Xinjiang fire simply fanned the flames of growing unrest. The people were cracking under pressure. It’s more than just a fire that was bound to die out, it’s a threat towards the status quo -- one that China desperately wants to maintain.

And China is no stranger to dissent, reaching into its ever growing toolbox of propaganda and repression. The government has tried to use the carrot-and-stick approach to ease an outraged populace. Rather than suppress protests by mobilizing macho tanks equipped with heavy artillery, the Chinese government will slowly chip away at backlash to achieve its agenda, suppressing outcries to whispers. While government officials speak of their policies as a “hands-on approach” and “the clean-up of the availability of products and apps and harmful content” are thinly veiled attempts to mask its mass censorship through circumventing websites and spouting recycled grievances through its heavily sanitized state media. It will be the same crackdowns done to neutralize the 2019 Hong Kong protests -- the same tactics that China uses to preserve its grip over an increasingly authoritarian regime. However influential these protests are, China has proven time after time its willingness to silence dissent through subtle strategies. But to disregard the frame that has been established by the lockdown protests would be a disservice -- it questions a status quo of human rights abuses and an ideologically extreme government. And those questions pose an open challenge. While the protests may not radically modify the political systems continuing to consolidate power, it signals a major change in the nation. Think of the blank sheet of paper, a sign of resistance and solidarity — a symbol of the unsung but untiring work to build a better future.