As protests are erupting in China Westerners can be reminded that China is not a quiet country. In different Chinese cities people marched organised against the government policies.
Different foreign media pointed to a deadly fire in an apartment building in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capitol, as a breaking point for the protests. As for most protests and uprisings in China, it is exceptional hard to pin the dissents trigger for outsiders.
The current protests are by far not the first protests in China against the official Corona policy.
In the last weeks alone uprisings in Foxxcon’s factories brought thousands of people to the streets.
Hong Kong‘s Free Press covered solidarity action in Hong Kong.
While so-called social media seems to offer a wiede rage of tools to organise dissent action, it also offers an even bigger potential for repression.
Like after the uprisings in Hong Kong the government’s use of digital traces to surveil, oppress and repress dissent in China will be an absorbing field of further investigation.
Many thanks to Ricker Choi for his permission to use his artwork!