What the White Papers Mean in China’s Rare ‘Zero Covid’ Protests

Often a single object takes the place of a symbol for an entire protest movement. So in China, this object is a humble piece of white paper, writes the BBC. As dusk fell on Shanghai on Sunday afternoon, some of those who gathered at a vigil for the victims of the fire amid a lockdown that sparked the protests came holding white papers.

And in Beijing, protesters were “armed” with pieces of paper at a demonstration at the prestigious Tsinghua University, where President Xi Jinping once studied. The latter was once again in power in the giant Asian country, becoming the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, the founder of the regime.

A young woman was captured on video walking the streets of Wuzhen with chains around her wrists and duct tape over her mouth. In her hands was a white sheet of paper.

Searches for “blank sheet of paper” and “white paper” return very few results. “The censorship has sparked outrage online, with one user noting that ‘if you’re afraid of a blank sheet of paper, you’re weak inside.’

Meanwhile, paper maker Shanghai M&G Stationary was forced to deny rumors that it had pulled all A4 paper from the shelves due to national security concerns. M&G officials said production and operation were normal and that they had alerted police to a fake document circulating online that had started the rumour.

Protesters, stymied by Beijing’s censorship machine, have also turned to other forms of anti-government commentary, including sarcastic remarks about China’s harsh policies against coronavirus. In one instance, after officials ordered dozens of protesters with white papers to stop anti-lockdown protests, they responded with sarcastic slogans such as “more lockdown” and “I want a Covid test”.

Paper is currently the symbol of protests in China, as umbrellas once were in Hong Kong, rubber ducks in Thailand and flowers in Belarus, the BBC concludes.