As China loosens COVID restrictions, protesters fear retribution

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Late last month, Shanghai resident Pei was one of many people who came out in support of historic protests against China’s COVID-19 curbs, including filming several seconds of footage of a man being arrested on a street corner. | Reuters

While Pei and other protesters were released with a warning, some rights lawyers and academics note President Xi Jinping’s hard line on dissent over the past decade, and say risks remain of further harassment and prosecution.

Last week, in a statement that did not refer to the protests, the Communist Party’s top body in charge of law enforcement agencies said China would crack down on “the infiltration and sabotage activities of hostile forces” and would not tolerate any “illegal and criminal acts that disrupt social order”.

The protests, widely seen as a tipping point to an easing in tight COVID restrictions, largely petered out in several cities after police mounted a heavy presence on streets.

Those who shouted slogans calling for the ouster of Xi or the Communist Party – as seen in a number of protests across China – potentially face heavier charges of inciting or engaging in subversion of the state, Zhang said, which in the most extreme cases carry punishment of up to life in prison. Pei, Eiro and other protesters Reuters spoke to said they were asked by police to sign letters of repentance, with some of them asked to read the letters aloud while being filmed.

Alfred Wu, assistant professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, said a harsher crackdown was only more likely if authorities believed the protests to be organised and political in nature, rather than leaderless and spontaneous.

 

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