What happened to the man who led the chants against Xi Jinping?

By Eva Rammeloo

When Wang first lifted his arm he was nervous. Then he pumped his fist in the air and yelled, “Communist Party?” The crowd answered him: “Down with it!” Next, Wang shouted “Xi Jinping?” The crowd reacted more tentatively to the president’s name; a few looked round to see the bespectacled young man who had dared to shout it. But they answered: “Down with him!” Wang yelled Xi’s name three more times. Each time the crowd’s response was louder: “Down with him!”

Wang (a pseudonym) didn’t even know that he’d been waiting for this moment. Like most young Chinese out on the street in Shanghai, this was his first protest, aged 27. After completing his shift at a cocktail bar, it had been a quick bike ride to join the gathering. People were laying flowers and lighting candles. Many held up blank sheets of paper, a silent protest against covid lockdowns, to represent all that they wanted to say but felt they couldn’t. “We don’t need to write anything,” one person said. “It’s a symbol of the people’s revolution.” (“Blank sheet of paper” and “white paper” were soon among the many terms censored online.)