Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
On China’s COVID Protests

On China’s COVID Protests

Last updated on: November 29, 2022 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

On China’s COVID Protests 2022-11-28T10:16:20-05:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s not just China but The “People’s” Republic of China. It was supposedly born out of a revolution of the working class, in which the “masses” rose up to overthrow the ruling class. Funny thing, though. Communism may have its beginnings as a populist movement, but once the revolution takes place, the “people” are put under restrictions like never before. But, as tyrants eventually learn, the people can only be pushed down so far until they rise up.

China, under President and Communist Party chairman Xi Jinping, has adopted a “no COVID” policy. Any outbreak results in brutal lockdowns of apartment buildings, factories, cities, and regions. We had a taste of that in the early phase of the epidemic, but locking down is no metaphor in China takes, as people infected with or exposed to the disease are literally locked into their homes.

Even now, long after the rest of the world has moved on from such restrictions and even after the Omicron variant now dominant is proving much less dangerous than the earlier varieties, China has become more strict than ever. There have only been six deaths from COVID in the last six months out of tens of thousands of cases in a nation of 1.4 billion. But Chairman Xi has demanded that there be no cases at all.

The populace has been chafing over the heavy handed quarantines. Loved ones are dying not from COVID but from the lockdowns, as caregivers are prevented from caring for aging parents and ambulances are prevented from going into infected areas. Last week at the world’s largest iPhone factory--where your iPhone was probably made if you have one–some 200,000 workers blew up, with some fleeing the plant due to rumors of a COVID outbreak, knowing that they wouldn’t be allowed to go home, and others protesting living conditions in make-shift dormitories they were forced to live in. When the promised hazard pay didn’t come through, the protests turned to rioting.

But then, across the country, all Hell broke loose. In the city of Urumqi residents have been prevented from leaving their homes for as long as 100 days. Last Thursday, a fire broke out in an apartment building. Blockades and quarantine enforcers in hazmat suits delayed firefighters from getting to the fire. And residents of the building were unable to escape because the doors had been locked from the outside. As a result, ten people perished in the fire.

As accounts of the fire and videos of the enforcers hindering rescuers spread on social media, protests broke out–in the city, in the region, in universities across the country, and in towns and cities everywhere–as thousands of Chinese citizens poured into the streets in defiance of both the lockdowns and the government, which has a history of brutally crushing all dissent.

But the demonstrations soon went beyond just protesting the COVID restrictions. In Shanghai, China’s largest city, protesters chanted “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” They set up memorials of candles, flowers, and placards and held up blank sheets of paper, which has become a symbol of censorship. (Censored Americans may want to use that.) They chanted, “Need human rights, need freedom.” And “Don’t want Covid test, want freedom!” And “Don’t want dictatorship, want democracy!”

Comments the UK Daily Mail in a heavily-illustrated account of the protests, “Every of these slogans is enough to send a person to jail for 10 years.” The people chanted the slogans anyway.

Perhaps the protests will blow over. Perhaps they will be crushed and the chanters will be identified from the videos and imprisoned for ten years. But perhaps not.

Mass popular uprisings like this one recall the overthrow of communism in the Soviet Union. The government did try to crush the rebellion, but the military forces, with their guns and tanks, refused to fire upon their fellow citizens and joined the revolt. While that was going on, China had a popular uprising of its own, but the military obeyed and did the government’s dirty work.

We’ll have to see what happens this time. Perhaps the government will make some concessions on the issue, easing the lockdowns. But such concessions often raise expectations and lead to other kinds of changes, as the people see that the government can be forced to do their bidding. Reportedly, the government has flooded protest zones with security personnel, emptying the streets for now. But the knowledge that a seething, angry mass of citizens who yearn for freedom exists under the surface can only be unsetting for the communist rulers.

Some American progressives have been looking fondly at Chinese authoritarianism (see here and here and here) for being able to “get things done” without all of the messy limitations on government imposed by a free society. Think, for example, of columnist Thomas Friedman’s fantasy of being “China for a day,” in which time the government could solve our environmental and economic problems with impunity.

But governments would do well to fear their people. Authoritarian governments are especially afraid of their people, which is why they try to control them so completely and try to make them fear their government. But freedom has a way of asserting itself.

Photo from Twitter via Daily Mail

Previous Post

November 28, 2022

Come, Lord Jesus

Next Post

November 30, 2022 Land of 130 Genders & 15 Pronouns

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"I know wired earbuds are making a comeback (I never stopped using them as I ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."

Tom Hering

Luther on Tools

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"I am not sure the items you mentioned, though disused, discontinued, discarded, could be considered ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book follows Psalms in the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Job Ecclesiastes Proverbs Song of Solomon

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »