China’s protests and the dark lesson of Hong Kong

It is easy to imagine that a dam might be bursting in China. There have been spontaneous street protests across the country against the country’s zero Covid policy, unconfirmed videos in Shanghai show crowds calling for president Xi Jinping to resign, and political content is slipping though China’s draconian social media censorship. 

Earlier in the pandemic, Chinese residents in Covid-stricken cities were trapped in their apartment buildings while, in one memorable dystopian moment, a horde of drones deployed by the local communist party told them to ‘control your soul’s desire for freedom’. Now, after a fire in a residential block in Urumqi killed ten people, it seems as though people have suddenly had enough.  

Many international outlets are correctly suggesting this new wave of public dissention is a ‘challenge’ to the Chinese Communist Party and its obsessive and doomed desire to prevent Covid from establishing a visible presence in the country. But