There is a tipping point to everything. A threshold once breached, that cannot be made good. As Xi Jinping stepped on the podium, beneath the colossal image of a hammer and sickle to deliver his speech at the 20th Communist Party Congress he looked invincible. The hall reverberated with rapturous applause, as the Chinese premier narrated the extraordinary achievements of the party in the last one decade. He described the times as "highly unusual" and affirmed that the Communist Party has led China through "a grim and a complex international situation" and the "huge risk and challenges that came one after another"
He spoke in a composed, insistent tone that underpinned the message of tighter control and regulation in every sphere of Chinese life. He repeated the word "security" in his speech more than fifty times and asserted that it was the "foundation of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,'' The speech marks Xi Jinping's, departure from adaptive authoritarianism, that has made China so successful in recent years.
Having secured an unprecedented third term, the only one to do so after Mao Zedong, and bolstered by the ever-expansive membership of the party, the event delivered a clear message that Chairman Xi Jinping is the nucleus of power in China and that none can dare stand against him. As the world began to debate the implications of Xi Jinping's rise and breakdown of collective party rule, the unthinkable happened.
Demonstrations erupted across China after at least ten people died in a fire in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. The word spread that the deaths happened because of the government's Zero Covid policy, which hampered rescue operations. One by one the protest spread across cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wahun and elsewhere. Students of more than a hundred Chinese Universities braved the coercive state machinery and spilled onto the streets.
They demanded an immediate end to the "Zero Covid Policy". In the last three years, many had been driven to despair and pushed to the brink, in the name of Covid control. Compulsory testing, endless lockdowns, and severe restrictions on movements and businesses have united city residents, workers and students to challenge the might of the Chinese state. It is no wonder that demonstrations against Covid morphed into the demand for greater freedom and democracy. It attempted to send a strong message that "enough is enough"
After Arab spring revolts, preventing pro-democracy protests have become Presidents Xi Jinping's top priority. Chinese civil society had been wiped out and the party purged of Xi's rivals. The constitution had been amended allowing Xi Jinping to hold power indefinitely. The uncompromising approach to the pandemic was merely an extension, another tool to prevent an open society from developing.
China had in the last decade developed into a formidable surveillance state. As reported by China File a publication of Asian Society's Center on US-China relations, from 2010 to 2019, the government procurement for equipment like facial recognition cameras, maintenance services related to surveillance increased nearly 1900 per cent. In Xiqiao, a city of roughly 300,000, officials have installed 1400 video cameras and over 300 facial recognition cameras. China's Project Sharp Eyes aim to equip 100 per cent of public spaces like streets, parks, train stations, etc., with video monitoring capacities and amass data into one central platform.
But the protests have shown that "surveillance is not omnipresent". Although there are reports of protesters being rounded up in their homes based on location data of their cell phones and social media sites being heavily monitored and censored the spirit of protest couldn't be dampened. People have found ways to bypass the systematic control.
A number of protesters were seen holding blank pages as placards. It was argued that the gesture is not only a statement about the silencing of dissent but also a challenge to authorities, as if to say 'are you going to arrest me for holding a sign saying nothing?' The Covid restrictions provided the spark to ignite the bottled-up emotions of the Chinese people.
Liberal ideas like the freedom to express, a call for democracy, right to dissent and differ that has been ruthlessly stifled by the state, have suddenly come to the forefront of national discourse. They erupted with an enormous force that momentarily shook the core of the Chinese state. Although the protests may not be potent enough, to change the ways of the present ruling dispensation, it is, however, a powerful reminder of the brittle hardlines set by autocrats.
Unlike the modern West where periodic election grant legitimacy to the ruler, in China the traditional Confucian conception bounds the ruler in a reciprocal relationship with his subjects, where the virtue of the ruler is given primary importance. In Analects Confucius states that "If a man is correct in his own person, then there will be obedience without orders being given. But if he is not correct…there will be no obedience even though orders are given"
The legitimacy of China's party state system is derived from its capacity to deliver and respond to the broad will of the people. But if repression replaces adaption and hegemony is enforced from above instead of inclusiveness from below the system is bound to falter. Yet this is what Xi Jinping had done. By tightening grip on his personalist rule he has forced public opinion to find expression elsewhere.
Today's China is quite different from the 2000 years that preceded it. Xi and his colleagues believe that the Soviet demise was the result of Gorbachev's policy of glasnost or transparent information. The natural corollary to this understanding necessitates the construction of a narrative which people are forced to believe in. But the truth is Soviets collapsed precisely because of the effort to paint a reality that didn't match with people's actual experience. With hundreds and millions of Netizens, China's cyberspace is Tiananmen Square of 21th century. Democratisation of information has unleashed forces, that have shattered the authoritative narrative worldwide
In such an atmosphere, the recital of Chinese valour against the virus, seemed flawed and fabricated. The images of maskless World Cup spectators coupled with China's refusal to use foreign-made vaccines, even though Sinovac's effectiveness was widely doubted made a complete mockery of the Government's "People first" policy. It didn't take long for people to realise that in the garb of vaccine nationalism, the authoritative system had breached the lines of privacy.
Latest reports suggest that China is easing its Covid related restrictions. It had deactivated the phone app that is used to track people during the pandemic. Home isolation is being allowed and inter province movement made easier. All because of the events of the last few weeks. The year began with authoritative regimes asserting their power. But it is due to end with a renewed hope of this power being rightfully reclaimed. The experiences in Ukraine, Iran and China prove this point.
By: Emon NC
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