Can’t censor blank sheets of paper, can you, comrade?
In what the Reuters news agency called a “widespread outpouring” of public protest, Chinese objecting to perpetual lockdowns–a feature of China’s “zero COVID” policy–are displaying blank sheets of paper (https://www.reuters.com/world/china/blank-sheets-paper-become-symbol-defiance-china-protests-2022-11-27/).
“The white paper represent(s) everything we want to say but cannot say,” a protester told Western reporters. The protests have been especially “widespread” in major cities like Beijing and Nanjing. The blank sheets of paper, of course, are an attempt to defeat censorship and repression.
The images of the protests bring to mind those we saw during the collapse of the Soviet Union. It would be a good thing for the whole world if China’s communist tyranny drowned in its own COVID policies and was replaced by… liberty! That was Sun Yat-sen’s dream, over 100 years ago. We pray in Jesus’ name that at long last the people of China gain their liberty.
I feel so sad for the people of China. What a nightmare the last three years have been for them, not to mention everything that they’ve been through before that as well.
But notice that these protesters are wearing masks. I don’t think it’s to protest being silenced, because the masks already have connotations of obedience to the state. In fact, Jordan Schachtel raises uncomfortable questions about this on his “Dossier” Substack:
https://dossier.substack.com/p/are-chinese-protesters-demanding
China’s had 4,000 years to come up with some kind of decent government. I’d say they were overdue.
Maybe – or maybe because the masks mess up facial recognition software.
Apparently the Chinese social credit system isn’t entirely dependent on normal facial recognition software, having other means of identifying and tracking people.
Praying
I’ll be watching this with interest.