In China, thousands of people across the country have taken to the streets this week against the communist leadership’s strict zero-Covid policy. They chanted: “We don’t want PCR tests, we want freedom,” and sometimes even: “Down with Xi Jinping!”
These protests are the largest China has seen in decades. Because under the authoritarian government it is almost impossible for people to demonstrate there and express their opinions freely. “One really has to be aware of the adverse circumstances against which these protests were carried out and the government at least occasionally making themselves heard,” agrees Katja Drinhausen, sinologist at the Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies in Berlin.
The communist party’s tough zero-Covid policy and the constant lockdowns across the country have had serious effects on the livelihoods of citizens, says Drinhausen – and this has led to a lot of anger about state arbitrariness. “Bigger, systemic questions have emerged from the many individual fates. And of course a lot has to do with Xi Jinping as a person.” Because both the current zero-Covid course and the overall rigid state policy, which determines even more than in the past what can and cannot be said, are centrally linked to the head of state and party leader Xi. For the future, Drinhausen sees a new political self-confidence emerging in China: “The protesters have repeatedly emphasized that they are not opposed to China, but that they are demonstrating out of their responsibility as Chinese citizens. Because certain things are now simply being said otherwise you will lose a chance for your own country.”
The editorial deadline for this program was Friday, December 2nd, 2022 at 6 p.m.
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Moderation, editing: Nadja Schlueter
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Additional audio material via dpa, ZDF, ARD, Twitter @vonderleyen, Reuters and SRF
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