In Newsletter 91, we talked about “A video of a Uyghur mother begging for the leaders to help her kids who are dying was spread on Twitter.” We were speculating that the Uyghur community is suffering tremendously but no one knows what is happening.
In Newsletter 96, we talked about “Xinjiang forbids anyone to leave the province” and “At least 13 Uyghurs have died as a result of poisoning from disinfectants sprayed in their homes last week used to fight a wave of coronavirus infections in a county in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, local residents and officials said.”
Many Han tourists in Xinjiang went on to social media to complain of the lockdown, and a few days ago they were allowed to leave and many were walking in the snow to escape Xinjiang. Some were even kneeling on the road to beg the security to let them pass to go home.
In the capital city of Xinjiang, Urumqi, a fire broke out at a residential area, on Nov. 24th. The fire started from the 15th floor and burned to the 21st floor. The fire truck came but could not get close to the building because of the road blocks, and then the cars that parked on the road. The area had been in lockdown for months and the cars had run out of batteries, so no one could move them out. The fire truck tried to stop the fire by blasting water from hundreds of meters away.
In the end, 10 people died and 9 more were hospitalized, according to the official announcement. On social media, some say around 40 people have died. Including some children. Many are Uyghurs. Picture of some of the children were posted:
The residents in the building told how their own building doors were locked from the outside, many had to get out of the building through the windows of ground floor apartments.
However, state media denied that the residents could not get out of the buildings. Urumqi government blamed the victims for not knowing how to save themselves.
The fire hazard posted by the lockdown measures has been criticized on social media many times. This is expected if you lock people inside their building. Rage was spreading on Chinese social media.
The next day, Nov. 25th, a protest started in another residential area. It is not clear what happened, according to social media, a man was beaten. The residents got angry, they carried the national flags and asked people to go protest with the national flags. The police were called and the residents clashed with the police.
Videos were uploaded to livestreaming websites, just like the Foxconn protest videos.
The protest lasted till the night and the residents decided to go to the city government to demand the end of lockdown. And this spread to other residential areas. Videos were uploaded at the same time the protest was going on. People reached the city government with the national flags and started breaking the gate. In Wechat group, they were making their major demands: exemption of real estate management fees, heating fees, rental fees, parking fees, and end of lockdown.
People made through the gate, stood outside the city government, sang the national anthem. Eventually, the deputy party secretary came out to answer questions:
Q: when will you end the lockdown?
A: whether we end the lockdown or not, whether there is COVID, all is done for the good of the people.
Around midnight, riot police arrived. Protesters waved the national flags and sang the national anthem again.
Eventually, the party secretary showed up and promised the end of lockdowns for low risk areas tomorrow. He also promised to go visit the residential areas where the protesters live.
Meanwhile, some Urumqi resident uploaded videos of police came to their door telling them to go to local police station on suspicion of “inciting riots” and shouting. The resident argued back and refused to go with him.
Some local people messaged Teacher Li that some districts in Urumqi protested and cell phone signals were being blocked.
To quiet down things, best was to change the subject: Chris Wu (吴亦凡) got 13 years of prison on the 25th. Around 8pm Beijing time, all major state media reported online:
The next day, (Saturday 26th), people all over China started expressing themselves. Many students in colleges wanted to show their sympathy and condolence to the people dead in the fire in Urumqi.
Many were angry that they were silenced on social media, they filled an entire piece of paper with “good (好)”.
Others used a blank paper to convene the same message.
University students started candlelight vigil for the victims of the fire. In one university, students gathered together and shouting: “Long live the people, may the people who died rest in peace!”.
Many citizens realized that the current COVID measures are deployed incompetently, chaotically, and irresponsibly. The fire in Urumqi showed people the harm they do, plain and clear. Many residents went to protest against the lockdowns, some even unlocked the gate by themselves. In Wuhan, citizens walked on the street and started destroying COVID blockage along the way.
Many citizens learned their new power to just end the lockdowns by themselves, and joined their neighbours to go protest in the streets.
Late Saturday afternoon, people started showing up with candles and blank paper in Urumqi road in Shanghai.
Quickly, the police came and started asking people who organized them. People replied: Chinese organized us.
At some point, people started shouting: “We want human rights, we want freedom.”
And then, most shocking to the foreign media, some one shouted: “CCP”, the crowd responded: “dismissed!”
People also shouted: “End Xinjiang lockdown!”
Later, people repeated their request that CCP be dismissed, and added, “Xi Jinping dismissed!”
The night ended with police arresting people in Shanghai and all over the country.
The next day is today, Sunday. Many people returned to the Urumqi road to find massive police presence. But people still wanted to express themselves.
A BBC reporter was roughed by the police:
Witnessed a BBC journalist got sieged and dragged to the ground by several cops in Shanghai earlier tonight on the Urumqi Rd. His friend said he was targeted becuz he was filming the protest. (feel free to @ his handle if you know who this journalist is ) @BBCNews @BBCNewsAsia
It seems it’s Edward Lawrence. BBC did not confirm yet.
Meanwhile, in Beijing, in Qinghua university, where Xi Jinping got his degrees, one lone girl started holding a piece of blank paper in silence.
A video showed that she was intimidated by the campus security guards, but she stood her ground.
Soon, others joined her. People are calling the protest “Blank paper revolution”. They say, all the printers on campus are under strict control. Students could not find printer to print any messages. That is why they are simply using a piece of blank paper to protest. And as more ans more students gathered, they started shouting: “Democracy and rule of laws, freedom of expressions.”
In the end, the university promised to relax COVID measures and that no students will be punished. So the students left.
People also gathered in other parts of Beijing. Police were blocking roads and creating massive inconvenience for normal citizens to go home.
In Xinjiang, the police were not as nice, you can see the video for yourself.
All over the world, news media reported on the protests in China. Many overseas Chinese organized vigils for the Nov 24 fire victims in various cities.
Many are speculating that as people return to class/work on Monday, there will be less protests in the schools and on the streets. The police will surely arrest many more in days to come.
There are many awful news coming out of China, why this fire sparked so much anger? Perhaps, it is because the fire made people think twice of the COVID measure, which does not make them feel safe at all.
People might be inspired by the Bridge man (see newsletter 98), and they might be inspired by the Foxconn workers. They might be fed up to be treated like slaves. The two most popular songs that people sang during the protest were the National anthem and the Internationale. The National anthem starts with “Arise, those who don’t want to be slaves.” The Internationale starts with “Arise the hungry and wretched slaves!”