Those present were driven by authentic anger over covid controls that have limited their freedoms for nearly three years
Now the remaining demonstrators found themselves outnumbered by police, with fresh columns of officers emerging each minute from the darkness. All there understood that the authorities were bringing this event to an end. The protesters sensed that a grey-haired man, flanked by a wall of police officers, was a, a leader. They were right.
Moments earlier, after hours observing the protests, Chaguan had been pulled from the crowd by police, questioned and told to leave. An eyewitness’s smartphone video captures the meeting with the police chief that began seconds later. A young protester in a white coat, maskless despite the certain risk of punishment, begins negotiating with the chief, Qi Yanjun. “If you’ve heard our voices then all this will not have been in vain,” says the protester, as if naming a price for leaving.
Mr Qi responds in kind. There are many police here, but none of them will lay a hand on you, they are protecting you, he tells the protesters. Then he makes a veiled threat: leave now, while you can go home safely. He growls “don’t shout” when the young man calls out: “Beijing’s police chief has heard what we have to say!” At last, his officers shoo everyone away.
The next day, prominent nationalist commentators praised the Beijing police for their restraint, before claiming that hostile foreign forces had organised the protests as a “colour revolution”. This was doubly misleading. For one thing, almost as soon as the protest ended, police moved to track down those present. Many youngsters have been called to police stations to sign statements, show officers their social-media contacts and answer questions about their political views.
Anger over the zero-covid policy matters because the party has no good options for assuaging it. China cannot lift covid controls quickly without risking chaotic waves of infection. That is a serious dilemma, especially because resentment of lockdowns has prompted such diverse demonstrations, including by migrant workers unafraid of violence. Politically charged protests involving students, like those seen in Beijing, are harder to assess.
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