Inspired by an age-old Soviet Union joke, the White Paper Protest took thousands of Chinese people to the street in major cities in China. People hold a blank sheet of paper with nothing written on it. As the first actual mass protest after the Tiananmen Movement in 1989, the message at first seems too easy to understand: people are arguing against the loss of freedom of speech. The protest ultimately faded as the country significantly loosened its Covid policies immediately after the outbreak of demonstrations. But one question lingers: was it really about freedom of speech, democracy, or zero-Covid policy?
If it was only about the freedom of speech, hardly the mass would be stirred like that. When Xi came to power in 2012, few scopes for free expression existed on Chinese social media. Why will people wait till this time to protest? If it is about democracy, just look into the five thousand years of Chinese history – dictators always ruled. The first pro-democracy reformer in China died early, and then another dictator reclaimed the throne in the Qing dynasty. Democracy is no big deal for the Chinese if they can make ends meet. It is not only about zero-Covid policies either. Opposition to Xi’s public health policies definitely played a role in the protest though, something else lurked behind this. It’s fear. It’s people’s fear of being the one who died helplessly in 2022 Ürümqi fire, fear of being trapped by endless lockdown mandates that no one knows when will come; fear of contracting Covid as a healthy person forced to go to field hospital; fear of losing the job as the only working force in the family to earn a living; fear of being the next to be tracked down by police on the internet because of saying “I’m afraid”. People came on the street for different reasons, but they were all dragged by the common fear of the future that is so immediate and bleak. The zero-Covid policy only serves as a driver for that feeling – if it is not Covid, it will be something else to stir up the mass.
When the people of a nation constantly live in uncertainties, they become afraid. In such case, what could a government do to deal with these fears? The current problems in China are multifaceted: nearly ineffective vaccines, a low rate of vaccinated population for elder people, a dense population, the fast-changing nature of Covid variants, and severe economic deterioration. The last thing Xi can do is to completely loosen the Covid restrictions nationwide, but it is also the exact policy he decided to implement. Mandatory Covid-testing was canceled. No lockdowns and field hospitals. QR Code used to record people’s traveling history was turned down. But the problem remains: now people are afraid of contracting Covid – or whatever variant it evolves into – fears still exist. However this time, it was Uncle Xi that stared at you and said in a paternalistic voice: “I told you; loosening Covid restrictions will not be good for you!”
Three years of Covid restriction collapsed in three days. What followed behind was skyrocketing positive cases. Some may argue the lifting of all the Covid restrictions is what those demagogues in the White Paper Protests asking for and they now have it. Some may say the government has been protecting you for three years and now you have to grow up and take your responsibility. However, was the problem solved? Were people’s fears appeased? The answer is hardly a yes. Xi failed to understand it was not the protest he needed to respond to, but poignant emotions epitomized in symbols such as White Paper Protest or public criticism. An open self-reflection on the side of government is much more solid than ambiguous avoidance and loosening everything out of the blue without any apology or explanation. And what will be the result? People are still afraid, and now even worse – they have lost trust in the government.