China: arrest of demonstrators continue
Event- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Nov 29, 2022
- Event Description
Chinese police are engaging in systematic reprisals against protestors who took to the streets across China to call for an end to inhumane “zero-COVID” lockdowns, mourn victims of the November 24 apartment fire in Urumqi, and demand political change.
“The outpouring of grief and empathy have united Han Chinese and Uyghurs. People have woken up to the reality that no one under Xi Jinping’s rule can escape the extraordinarily harsh and inhumane measures, which have had fatal consequences, and for which victims of the Urumqi fire paid the price with their lives,” said Renee Xia, CHRD Executive Director.
“We just witnessed one of the most significant protest movements in China since 1989, but now many of these brave protestors are at grave risk of being disappeared and tortured. The Chinese government is likely to put many of them in secret detention facilities and deny their due process rights,” said William Nee, CHRD’s Research and Advocacy Coordinator.
We at CHRD are seriously concerned that detained protestors are at high risk of being forcibly disappeared and subjected to torture and deprivation of due process rights. This is in light of the Chinese government’s track record of rights abuses of detained or jailed critics who have previously expressed dissent over Xi Jinping’s COVID polices and his increasingly dictatorial governance.
“The international community – heads of governments, international organizations, and private sectors and civil society leaders —must speak out now, loud and clear, to condemn the unfolding crackdown on demonstrators exercising their freedom of expression and peaceful assembly guaranteed under international human rights law and the Chinese Constitution,” said Ramona Li, CHRD Senior Researcher and Advocate.
People across China showed up in historic numbers in the streets and on college campuses to mourn victims of the Urumqi fire on November 24 and vent outrage over strict COVID lockdown measures. They demanded lifesaving measures that would require easing the daily suffering that the government has inflicted on them in the name of pandemic control. The protests in some cities quickly turned into demonstrations against the escalating repression under Xi Jinping’s one-man dictatorial rule. Protestors demanded Xi and the Chinese Communist Party step down and voiced their desires for democracy, human rights, and rule of law. Police harassed and intimidated demonstrators, dragging scores into vehicles.
Authorities are also cranking up censorship online and deploying large numbers of security guards to cordon off roadways, conducting door-to-door inspections, searching cellphones for protest-related content in the streets, and arresting people who continue to protest.
When spontaneous protests erupted in Urumqi on November 25, demonstrators expressed demands for ending the lockdowns and aired frustration over disregard for lives and food shortages. As mourners and protestors poured into Shanghai’s Urumqi Road on the following day, speeches and chants connected the fatal consequences of “zero-COVID” lockdown to the Chinese political system. Protestors chanted “Communist Party: Step Down!” “Xi Jinping: Step Down!” Other cities followed suit.
On November 27, a crowd in Beijing gathered under the Sitong Bridge and chanted the demands on the banners hung from the bridge by a lone protester, Peng Lifa, who was detained and forced into disappearance, less than a month prior: “We want food, not COVID tests / Freedom, not lockdowns / Dignity, not lies / Reform, not Cultural Revolution / Elections ballots, not a ruler / To be citizens, not slaves.”
These demands were echoed in protests against not just local authorities for specific issues but Xi’s dictatorship in many other cities, with protestors also chanting, “Give me liberty, or death!” in what has come to be known as the baizhi geming (The White Paper Revolution).
At the time of this statement’s release, there have been many online-circulated video/audio clippings, photos and text messages of police dragging people away, forcing them into vehicles, or making arrests at homes. Participants, bystanders, and journalists shared some information about police rounding up protesters.
Shanghai resident Chen Jialin (陈佳林), was taken away near the subway station, on her way home from protests at Urumqi Road. She was talking to a journalist on her cellphone when a policeman from the city’s Railway and Transportation PSB detained her. As of November 29, at around 10pm, she was detained at Shanghai No. 2 Detention Center. A protester was filmed as police wrestled him away while he cried, “Let me speak just once! Why not allowed?…” in Shenzhen on November 29. Details about this detainee are unavailable. A protester named Li Kangmeng (李康梦) has gone missing near Nanjingxi Road, Shanghai, on November 30, and is feared to have been detained.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19
- Freedom of assembly
- Freedom of expression
- Offline
- Right to liberty and security
- Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 31.199749695617328
Longitude: 121.47011910259835
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 29 and 30 November 2022, an undefined number of community-based defenders were arrested and taken away by the police for protesting the COVID-19 restrictions in several cities including Shanghai, China.