When China's relaxation of epidemic prevention and control is in progress, write to friends who have not yet regained their freedom

To my dear friends not yet free:

In mid-October, you responded to the "Sitongqiao" incident and posted posters in a public toilet somewhere in Beijing, and you were arrested as a result. It has been more than 37 days since then. Beijing has been very cold recently. The lake in Beihai Park is frozen, and everyone is wrapped in thick down jackets. I heard that all things are not allowed to be brought to you. I wonder if you have enough clothes in the detention center? how are you doing There are many things I want to tell you, and I am worried that you will forget them when you come out, so I wrote this letter.

Recent Situation: "Blank Paper Protest" and "New Ten Articles"

On December 7, 2022, the State Council issued the "Notice on Further Optimizing and Implementing the Prevention and Control Measures of the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic", proposing "ten new" measures, including reducing the scope of nucleic acid testing, increasing the number of rectifications, and allowing asymptomatic infections and mild cases to stay at home Quarantine etc.

Since the lockdown of Wuhan on January 23, 2020, we have experienced severe lockdown measures and seen many tragedies happen. The "New Ten Measures" measure is the most clear and most vigorous announcement issued by the highest-level department in the past three years. If 2020 marks the beginning of COVID-19, will December 7, 2022, be the time when people resume their daily lives? I hope it will be. Let's watch for a while longer and see how things play out.

Regarding the promulgation of the "New Ten Rules", the government's main pressure is the "Sitong Bridge" incident on October 13, the Urumqi fire and protests on November 24, and the "blank paper" protests from November 25 to 28. You know about the Sitong Bridge incident. There are two other things that I can tell you about.

On the evening of November 24, a fire broke out in Jixiangyuan Community, Tianshan District, Urumqi City. Officials reported that 10 people were killed and nine were injured in the accident. But a group of unofficial data said that the number of victims was as high as 40 people. On the evening of the 25th, citizens of Urumqi took to the streets to protest. On the 26th, a female college student at Nanjing Institute of Communication held a blank paper to mourn, and more and more students joined her. That night, the people of Shanghai also went to Shanghai's "Urumqi Middle Road" to mourn the victims of the fire. They shouted slogans such as "no nucleic acid" and "step down". In the next few days, citizens in at least 21 provinces of my country and students from 200 colleges and universities responded.

Why you, why us?

On the morning of the 27th, a group of characters made up of Martian characters, symbols, and emoticons were circulated among friends, which roughly meant "1127, 9:30, Wujingban". Not long after, I heard that there was a police car near the Urumqi Beijing Office. In the afternoon of the same day, a poster showed that the address of the rally was changed to the Ukrainian embassy in Liangmaqiao. In addition, there are embassies of more than 30 other countries near Liangma Bridge. Did the embassy choose the embassy to reduce the police's suppression methods, or did it come from other considerations? I don't know.

In order to prevent counterattacks by the police, people concealed their information as much as possible. Someone, a few people have the idea of mourning, send a set of messages, but they have no way of knowing whether someone will respond, and it is difficult to control the direction of the situation. It is also difficult for those who participated in it to restore the whole picture of the whole event. Protests in Beijing and across the country have shown characteristics of disorganization and decentralization.

After hearing that you were arrested, my friends were very upset and had many doubts: did you think about the consequences before doing this? Why did you do this alone? Would it be different if you discussed safety measures with your friends? why are you?

Later, I learned that almost all of these friends showed up at the rally at Liangma Bridge in Beijing on the evening of the 27th. On the afternoon of the 27th, my friend Han Meimei repeated several questions: "Will I be arrested if I go to the scene? After being arrested, I will definitely be fired by the company, right? I didn't tell my parents, will it affect them?" I said : "If you're worried, you can consider not going." She didn't reply and continued to worry. For her, there seemed to be no option not to go.

With the fire in Urumqi as the fuse, a series of tragedies that happened in the past three years were easily drawn out. I think of you who are not yet free, and others who want to remember. When such an opportunity for collective voice, the possibility of making a difference, presents itself, it is hard to ignore it. Everyone's starting point is different, but everyone has made a choice.

A night of courage and fear

At 9:30 that night, I arrived at the bridge where Liangmaqiao South Road and Xinyuan Street intersect. There were at least ten police cars on the two-lane road as officers prepared to cordon off the area. I stood on the bridge and vaguely saw some people standing by the riverside of Liangma Bridge. The police let people on the bridge leave on the grounds of epidemic prevention and prohibition of gatherings. We walked to the bank of Liangmaqiao South Road, but the street lights on the opposite bank were not turned on, and there seemed to be candlelight flickering on the ground. Someone picked up a flashlight and shone it to the other side, and we saw the situation clearly—at least sixty or seventy people, holding flowers and blank paper. People on both sides of the strait shouted to each other and sang the Internationale.

At ten o'clock in the evening, the police formed a human wall and began to drive people away. As soon as we returned to Xinyuan Street, the police immediately pulled up the cordon. At this time, someone held up a white paper and walked forward. Everyone also held up the papers in their hands, first walked north along Xinyuan Street, then turned west on Xinyuan South Road, shouting as they walked, the more people walked, the louder they shouted. There are more and more participants. There are at least 500 to 600 people on Xinyuan South Road, and some people gather at other intersections. However, there are also more and more police.

Police in uniform first blocked every intersection, and then gradually separated people in the middle section of Xinyuan South Road. The plainclothes mixed in the crowd, kept shouting "It's too late, go home", and pushed everyone away with their bodies. Some screenshots were circulated in the group, such as "the police narrowed the encirclement", "the sanitation worker said to turn on the gas". The people at the scene did not know whether the news was true or not. Someone shouted "arrest", and people gathered and shouted "let's go together". But the police said as they pushed people away: "No arrests."

In Shanghai on the 26th, the police took away many protesters. It is difficult to predict how the police will respond. Every moment I was on set, I was nervous. Every moment the police showed their presence, I wanted to leave. The pressure from the police, the dim environment, the stagnant queue, the separated crowd... Around midnight, people on Xinyuan South Street slowly left, but at other intersections, there were still people at four o'clock in the morning.

This is the largest rally and demonstration against the government in our country in the past 30 years. Many of the participants took to the streets for the first time to directly dissent. For those involved, it was an unforgettable night of courage and fear.

Follow up

From November 28 to December 7, I heard one after another that some friends were harassed by the police. In Beijing, most of the cases are phone calls, door-to-door calls, subpoenas, police records, and letters of guarantee; Some were taken away by the police, and some were released within 24 hours.

How to deal with the counterattack of the police? How to support people who have experienced government violence? Where will this movement go with the release of the "New Ten Articles"? This is a new topic for everyone, and I hope we can explore more. But in any case, the release of the "New Ten Articles" is an unimaginable huge concession from the government. This is the struggle of Peng Zaizhou, you, and many unknown people. I hope that good news related to you can be heard as soon as possible.

Today was a calm day for me, at least no more bad news today. How about you, how is your day? Until the day you regain your freedom, I hope you take good care of yourself as much as possible, I hope we can chat in the sun as usual, I hope that day will come as soon as possible.

2022.12.8