The high rise fire that killed 10 people last week in China launched protests with people demanding an end to zero-COVID restrictions. As Ed noted this morning, the protests spread over the weekend to major cities around the country. People are fed up and are putting themselves at significant risk by going into the streets and demanding that President Xi step down. Here’s a bit of what that looked like.

The crowd chanted “CCP step down!” on the streets of Shanghai.
It’s been a few hours since the protests started and there’re no signs of a major escalation of the situation. Still, this is a VERY significant moment. https://t.co/1s5K9MSpDa

— Nathan Law 羅冠聰 (@nathanlawkc) November 26, 2022

This courageous man stood in front of a shopping mall in #Shanghai holding a sheet of paper on which was written “You know what I want to say.” He was taken away by the police. pic.twitter.com/oxI4iuqLjT

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 27, 2022

And in Chengdu, a city of 16 million:

Chengdu Candle vigil turns into a gathering of chanting slogans again. Ppl shouted “ freedom of press, freedom of expression”. I have to say it’s amazing to hear these slogans so loudly& earnestly shouted out by Chinese ppl without fear. Unknown why gov could allow this. To watch pic.twitter.com/GVtC45gvv1

— Vivian Wu (@vivianwubeijing) November 27, 2022

In Nanjing:

南京传媒学院 同学们一起点亮灯光
齐声高喊 人民万岁！逝者安息！ pic.twitter.com/VGcxU2oC9a

— 李老师不是你老师 (@whyyoutouzhele) November 26, 2022

Similar protests are also happening in Beijing. A translation of this tweet reads: “There are more and more students protesting at Tsinghua University, shouting ‘democracy and the rule of law, freedom of expression’, which is regarded as the earliest political appeal in Beijing’s protest.”

清华大学抗议的学生越来越多，高喊“民主法治、表达自由”，算是北京的抗议最早提出政治诉求的。 pic.twitter.com/DoMAH3buoG

— 方舟子 (@fangshimin) November 27, 2022

Obviously, the CCP does not want videos or photos like these spreading online. China has firm control of domestic social media which is why some Chinese citizens are resorting to posting clips on Twitter. Twitter is not generally available in China but can be accessed through the use of a VPN.

But it seems there’s an organized effort to drown out the videos even on Twitter. If you search the names of various Chinese cities in English you’ll be able to see them. However, if you search the same cities in Chinese you get a bunch of soft-porn:

If you’re curious, here’s a search for “Shanghai” using Chinese characters. As I write this, it’s still a bunch of escort ads that drown out any protest videos.

Of course there’s another way to keep videos and photos from being spread online. The BBC’s Edward Lawrence, the same guy Ed wrote about earlier, is back at work today and caught police deleting images from people’s phones. Anyone who refuses to delete images gets arrested.

Wulumuqi Road, the sight of protests and clashes over the past few days, now fenced up. Heavy police and security presence. People who take photos are being stopped by police and forced to delete. Two people taken away for refusing to. #shanghai #china pic.twitter.com/g7YcDxnya1

— Edward Lawrence (@EP_Lawrence) November 28, 2022

People being forced to delete photos by the police today at the of the last two days of protests #shanghai #china pic.twitter.com/VS1kFSoh3x

— Edward Lawrence (@EP_Lawrence) November 28, 2022

Police are reportedly also checking for banned apps:

Sources in #Shanghai are now telling me that police are now stopping people and checking their phones to see if there are any apps like Telegram, Instagram, and Twitter that have been used a lot to share updates of the protests with the outside world. #China

— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) November 28, 2022

Apparently, the pushback to this within China is to claim that the protests are the result of “foreign forces” who have infiltrated the country somehow. This clip shows some protesters in Beijing responding directly to these dumb claims. “Where are these foreign forces? From the moon?!” And bonus points for mocking Marx and Engels as foreign influences. The CCP can’t be happy about that.

This was such a brilliant video I subtitled it so more people can watch it. Beijing students' response last night to accusations that there are 'foreign forces' at play in this weekend's protests

'The foreign forces you are talking about – are they Marx and Engels?' https://t.co/umdFaVhz2s pic.twitter.com/RoohkFaZgE

— Cindy Yu (@CindyXiaodanYu) November 28, 2022

A lot of people are comparing this moment to Tiananmen Square. Once again it starts with young people, students who are calling for more freedom and democracy.

Surreal night in Beijing
Protesters chanted "no to covid tests, yes to freedom" for hours
Some cheered for Xi Jinping to step down.
After 2am, police presence ramped up. I asked one what they'd do if people didn't leave. Would they use tear gas? He just said plz go home @cnn pic.twitter.com/fuGg2UHQb1

— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) November 27, 2022

In Beijing, these protests are taking place not from from Tiananmen Square.

People still marching through the streets of Beijing only 4km away from the Tiananmen Square, next to some embassies of the world. #Beijing #China pic.twitter.com/hCZ9UwCOww

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) November 27, 2022

The question now is how long Xi Jinping will allow this to continue. Police presence has already been stepped up. Will this escalate and if so will Xi send in tanks or will he announce that he’s easing zero-COVID restrictions.