Fears are growing for the safety of ‘Wang’, the protester who led crowds calling for an end to Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, who has not been seen since being taken by police to the sequel to viral video
- ‘Wang’, 27, has not been seen since his arrest at his workplace on Sunday
- Wang led crowds in chanting anti-communist slogans during Shanghai protests
- Parents say no official documents have been issued for their son’s arrest following viral video
A protester who led crowds calling for the abolition of the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping during massive anti-lockdown protests in China has not been seen since his arrest last weekend, according to reports.
The 27-year-old, known only as ‘Wang’, was last seen on Sunday after police arrested him at a bar where he works, the Telegraph reported.
Wang recently appeared in a viral video of protests in Shanghai, leading crowds in their protest.
The video is the latest in a series of scenes emerging from China of nationwide protests against the country’s strict Covid measures, including one of protesters throwing bottles at riot police in the southern province of Guangzhou.
Demonstrators protesting coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions throw glass bottles towards riot police in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, in this screenshot from a social media video posted November 30, 2022
Residents clash with workers dressed in protective suits blocking the entrance to a residential compound, amid an outbreak of the coronavirus in Shanghai, China, in this still image obtained from social media video published on November 30, 2022
In the video in which Wang appears, he rouses the crowd by shouting a series of questions as they answer.
He asks: ‘Xi Jinping?’ to which the crowd shouts in response: “Down! The crowd also gives the same answer to the question: “Communist Party?
Wang’s parents told the Telegraph there were no papers for their son’s arrest and did not seem comfortable giving details of what their son had done in the video.
Such public sedition is extremely rare in China, a country that tightly controls almost every aspect of the lives of its 1.4 billion citizens, through censorship, surveillance and propaganda.
Self-censorship is also widespread, as people try to be careful of what they say to each other in public – whether online or in person – out of fear, retaliation or punishment.
Chinese censors were recently overwhelmed as they attempted to erase images of blank white sheets of paper from the internet used by protesters during the growing number of demonstrations against President Xi Jinping’s zero Covid policy.
The country is currently facing its biggest anti-government protests since the Tiananmen Square massacre, with protesters in at least seven cities holding up blank sheets of paper to symbolize censorship.
Protesters hold up pieces of paper as a symbol against censorship and China’s strict zero Covid measures on November 27, 2022
Protesters have taken to the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Nanjing in an unprecedented wave of dissent to demonstrate against President Xi, his oppressive Covid crackdowns and an increasingly authoritarian regime.
Online discussions and media coverage of the protests are now banned as security forces deployed to the streets of major cities across the country last night.
Chinese football fans have even received a censored feed from the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, as communist authorities desperately try to prevent images of large unmasked crowds from reaching locals as protests escalate. rage against harsh Covid measures.
A comparison of footage from the Cup shows that broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) intercepted footage of the tournament and doctored footage of the crowd using a 30-second delay.
