The Chinese are no longer willing to comply with the harsh Zero Covid policy implemented by their government. Protests exploded across Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Nanjing, and many other cities as people called for President Xi Jinping’s resignation and the downfall of the entire Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This is perhaps the largest public display of civil unrest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
A fire consumed a building in the Xinjiang region, but people were trapped inside after being on lockdown for over 100 days. Ten people died. There was a delay in controlling the fire due to pandemic restrictions, and this seems to have been the final straw.
Small demonstrations and protests occur from time to time, but the Chinese Communist Party has quickly decimated any large-scale protest in the past. Such defiance comes with a huge penalty, largely preventing such acts from occurring. Yet, you can only push the people too far. Machiavelli wrote in “The Prince,” “It is better to be feared than to be loved, if one cannot be both.” The people first believed that their government was keeping them safe from the pandemic, but now see that is simply not the case. People may fear the wrath of the CCP, but they fear months on end of lockdowns even more.
