Chinese protesters — who over the past week have rallied against the nation’s zero-COVID policies — are using increasingly creative methods to evade Beijing’s censors, spread the word, connect with one another, and preserve documentation of this historical moment.
The country’s top social media platforms, WeChat, an all-in-one app with messaging and semi-public posting options, and Weibo, a microblogging website, are tightly controlled by the government and posts can be pulled down in a matter of seconds.
But in the precious window of time before posts get deleted, activists and other users are rushing to download and screenshot them for recirculation, creating a viable way of circumventing censors, at least temporarily.
Other tactics protesters and supporters have used include using sarcasm and passive aggressiveness, such as using the now-iconic blank A4 sheet to symbolise Chinese authorities’ suppression of free speech, or repeating affirmative, non-censored phrases to highlight the inability of Chinese netizens to voice criticism.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, received a spate of such responses on his recent Weibo posts, such as his November 29 post about President Xi Jinping’s meeting with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh, where users said, “Support support support support”, “Good good good good good good”, and “You said well! You said well! You said well! You said well! You said well!”
Posts occasionally slip past the censors. One user sarcastically asked, “Is the next step to ban the selling of A4 paper?” Other netizens posted relevant lyrics to songs they like, such as “Speechless” from 2019’s Aladdin or The Hunger Games’ “The Hanging Tree”, both of which express a yearning for freedom. Under these posts that indirectly express support for the protests, other social media users comment, “I get it” and “Good luck”.
Some protesters have even turned to dating apps and video games, including the recently released Splatoon 3, to spread slogans.
Twitter, although blocked in China, has become a crucial space for the protesters. Users such as @whyyoutouzhele ferry videos and photos from mainland China, while others post text-based accounts of what’s happening on the ground. Sometimes, this media makes its way back onto Weibo or WeChat.
Unable to discuss their involvement in the protests on Chinese social media platforms freely, several protesters have stuck their necks out on Twitter to say, “That was me.” Some have even connected with other users who unknowingly took part in the same protests.
However, reports have quickly followed that police have visited protesters’ homes and requested they delete their photos or social media activity about the protests. For some, this has meant preemptively deleting their accounts altogether. The crackdown is likely to get worse, as internet users will soon be held liable for even “liking” posts deemed harmful, especially as legislation in China has enforced verification of users’ real identities for social media platforms. Footage from Shanghai already shows police officers conducting random searches of personal mobile devices on the subway.
Despite widespread coverage of the historic protests overseas, social media algorithms have quarantined the news from many users’ feeds. One Weibo user based in Canada wrote that his mother, who lives in China, had no clue what was happening, and had no way of knowing, as the news did not come up on television or on her WeChat. Meanwhile, videos on TikTok-like apps Douyin and Kuaishou contained terms and code words she did not understand. On my own WeChat, there was also no sign of the protests, as no one in my circle shared news or media about it.
Counternarratives have flowed onto social media platforms quickly. The most common line is that these protests are being pushed by outside agitators and foreign forces, including claims that those who have shown up to hold white paper sheets have been paid to do so.
In a video taken at Beijing’s Liangma Bridge, protesters responded to these accusations: “The foreign forces you are talking about are Marx and Engels!”
“Was the fire in Xinjiang caused by foreign forces? Did foreign forces cause the bus in Guizhou to overturn? We can’t even access the outside internet! Where would such foreign forces come from? Only the internal forces are preventing us from gathering!”
