These are the first major nationwide protests against the Communist Party (KP) and its surveillance dictatorship since the democracy movement in the summer of 1989.

At that time, a million people in Beijing demanded more freedom. The army was sent to Tiananmen Square and massacred thousands, mostly students. Since then, the events in the People’s Republic have not been discussed.

“China doesn’t need an emperor”

Now people are calling for democracy and freedom again. They chant “China doesn’t need an emperor,” “We want to vote, we don’t want a leader,” and “We want to be citizens, not slaves.” Their calls are directed against ruler Xi, who just a month ago had himself proclaimed president for a third time.

What looked like power galore on the television pictures from Beijing in October turned out to be a facade and masquerade overnight. People are tired of still being locked down three years after the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.

400 million people are still in lockdown in China right now. They understand more and more that Xi’s surveillance state can spy on their every move and lock them up in their homes for months if it chooses.

Even if the government now makes small gestures towards the protesters and lifts measures, the experience that all people in China had to live with Xi will remain in the collective memory.

The government is not only conciliatory, but is trying everything to end the protests: police officers are blocking the streets and places where demonstrations have taken place so far. An armada of people is trying to use algorithms to remove all photos and videos from the demos and vigils from the Internet.

But there are so many that they can hardly keep up. And the police are looking for those they were able to locate using facial recognition. Such intimidation is intended to discourage people from further demonstrating.

However, people are not only taking to the streets now and only against the restrictive corona regulations: Non-governmental organizations have counted up to 735 protests nationwide since mid-May.

People are demonstrating because banks and real estate developers have gambled away their savings, because their working conditions are miserable or because their wages are not being paid. With youth unemployment at 20 percent, China’s young generation is also on the battlefield against ruler Xi.

The people are certainly not demonstrating primarily for a multi-party system or free and fair elections. Many of them assume that the People’s Republic could change within the order under which they have lived all their lives.

“Xi Jinping, resign”

As Xi Jinping has linked the “zero Covid” strategy to his reputation as an all-knowing ruler, the gaze of the protesters inevitably turns to him. “Xi Jinping, resign,” they shout.

Within the party the ranks are firmly closed. It is to be expected that those who rose to new posts in October through their loyalty to Xi will do their utmost to ensure that Xi’s power is not questioned and that their great patron is duped.

Just before the jubilee began in October, a courageous protester hung a banner on a bridge in Beijing calling for Xi’s resignation from all posts.

His protest was honked and applauded online. Six weeks later, the one-man protest has grown to tens of thousands of people. In a few weeks it could be hundreds of thousands, in a few months millions. Sometimes big moves start small. In any case, the people of the People’s Republic have tasted freedom.

*Alexander Görlach is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York. Most recently, Hoffmann & Campe published “Red Alert: Why China’s Aggressive Foreign Policy in the Pacific Is Leading to a Global War”