In the past week, China has seen a wave of impassioned protests from citizens, a rarity in an authoritarian state known for tight control of expression. The demonstrations were spurred by opposition to the government’s strict zero-COVID policies, which heavily restrict the movement of citizens in areas with positive tests for the virus and are believed to have caused the deaths of 10 in an apartment fire due to emergency services being unable to reach it in time.
While the protests began in opposition to COVID protocols, they have since grown to encompass much broader grievances with the government, with demonstrators in some areas calling for things like freedom of speech and the press.
Others have gone so far as to call for the current Chinese leadership to step down entirely. In response to the growing movement, the White House said it supports the right of Chinese citizens to assemble and protest, though it did not comment on the calls for leaders to leave office.
Seemingly in response to the White House’s support of protestors, Hua Chunying, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs and an official spokesperson for the Chinese government, posted a tweet on Tuesday criticizing the U.S. and claiming that Beijing’s policies are simply trying to keep people safe. In the past, China has often highlighted American issues in response to criticism of its perceived failings.
“The price of ‘freedom’ in the US: 1 million Covid deaths + 40,000 gun deaths per year + 107,622 Fentanyl deaths in 2021 alone,” Hua tweeted. “The American people deserve something far better than that. What we want is to protect our people’s lives and ensure them a better life.”
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.
On Sunday, Wang Dan, a Chinese democracy advocate and former leader of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, wrote in a Facebook post that a violent response to this wave of protests could lead to the end of the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping’s time in power. Exiled from China for his activism, Wang lives in the U.S.
“I said early that ‘June 4’ only happens once,” Wang wrote. “If the CCP dares to mobilize its troops to shoot again, the CCP will surely be overthrown… If the CCP repeats itself 33 years later with more bloodshed, it could lead to greater backfire than before.”
Wang previously told Newsweek that China’s current economic turmoil will be the difference between now and 1989, when the government used violence to crack down on the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. Back then, he explained, the Chinese economy boomed in the aftermath of the protests, helping the government establish a sense of legitimacy.
