Massive demonstrations against the new COVID-19 limitations and the ensuing lockdown in various sections of the nation have taken place in China over the past several days. While the demonstrators have been yelling slogans and holding up various banners in opposition to the Xi Jinping-led administration, others have developed a new form of protest: a blank piece of paper.
Social media photos of protesters clutching blank sheets of paper have gone viral, which has left many people perplexed about the significance of the paper. The significance of the piece of paper for the populace was explained to CNN by Johnny, a 26-year-old who participated in one of the processions along the Liangma River. The white paper, he claimed, ‘represents everything we want to say but cannot’.
‘I came here to show my respect for the fire victims, and I sincerely hope that we can put a stop to all of these COVID regulations. We desire to resume living a regular life. We aspire to be dignified’. At Tsinghua University in Beijing, a similar display of white blank papers was photographed.
Although these rallies were the first of their kind in China, the ‘blank white sheet’ movement had its roots in Hong Kong. When the new national security law was approved in 2020 by the Beijing-backed government, protesters utilised the technique to avoid using slogans that were forbidden. Additionally, some Russian demonstrators utilised the technique to voice their opposition to the current conflict in Ukraine.
The announcement of a new lockdown under the government’s zero-Covid policy and the apartment fire in Urumqi, which ultimately claimed the lives of 10 people, served as the catalyst for the protests. People think that the fact that the city in western China was under strict lockdown prevented them from escaping. The top stationery retailer in the nation, M&G Stationery, saw its stock drop by about 3.1% as a result of reports that the government could outlaw the sale of white sheets nationwide.
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