As China relaxes its epidemic prevention and control measures, I write to my friends who have not yet regained their freedom | Submission

To my dear friends who have not yet regained their freedom:

In mid-October, you responded to the "Sitong Bridge" incident and posted posters in a public toilet somewhere in Beijing. You were arrested for this. It has been more than 37 days. Beijing has been very cold recently. The lake in Beihai Park has frozen over. Everyone is wrapped in thick down jackets. I heard that you are not allowed to bring anything to you. Do you have enough clothes in the detention center? How are you doing? I have a lot of things to tell you, but I am worried that you will forget them when you get out, so I wrote this letter.

Recent developments: “White Paper Protest” and “New Ten Articles”

On December 7, 2022, the State Council issued the "Notice on Further Optimizing and Implementation of New Coronavirus Pneumonia Prevention and Control Measures", proposing "Ten New Measures", including narrowing the scope of nucleic acid testing, intensifying rectification, and allowing asymptomatic infections and those with mild symptoms to be isolated at home.

Since the lockdown of Wuhan on January 23, 2020, we have experienced severe lockdown measures and witnessed many tragedies. The "New Ten Measures" are the most clear and powerful announcements issued by the highest level authorities in the past three years. If 2020 marks the beginning of the COVID-19, will December 7, 2022 be the time when people resume their daily lives? I hope so. Let's wait and see how the situation develops.

Regarding the release of the "New Ten Articles", the main pressure on the government was the "Sitong Bridge" incident on October 13, the Urumqi fire and protest on November 24, and the "Blank Paper" protest from November 25 to 28. You know about the Sitong Bridge incident. I can tell you some information about the other two incidents.

On the evening of November 24, a fire broke out in Jixiangyuan Community, Tianshan District, Urumqi. Official reports said the accident caused 10 deaths and 9 injuries. But a set of unofficial data showed that the number of casualties was as high as 40. On the evening of the 25th, citizens of Urumqi took to the streets to protest. On the 26th, a female college student from Nanjing University of Media and Communication held up a white paper to mourn, and then more and more classmates joined her. That night, Shanghai citizens also went to "Urumqi Middle Road" in Shanghai to mourn the victims of the fire, and everyone shouted slogans such as "No nucleic acid" and "Step down". In the next few days, citizens from at least 21 provinces and students from 200 universities in my country responded.

Why you, why us?

On the morning of the 27th, a group of Martian characters, symbols, and emoticons circulated on the Internet, which roughly meant "1127, 9:30, Urumqi Beijing Office". Soon after, it was heard that there were police cars near the Urumqi Beijing Office. That afternoon, a poster showed that the rally address had been changed to the Ukrainian Embassy in Liangmaqiao. In addition, there are embassies of more than 30 other countries near Liangmaqiao. Is it because the embassy's special nature can reduce the police's repression, or is it for other considerations that this place was chosen? It is unknown.

In order to prevent a counterattack by the police, people tried to hide their information as much as possible. One or a few people came up with the idea of ​​mourning and sent a group of messages, but they had no way of knowing whether anyone would respond, and it was difficult for them to control the direction of the situation. It was also difficult for the participants to restore the full picture of the entire event. The protests in Beijing and even across the country were characterized by being unorganized and decentralized.

When friends heard about your arrest, they were upset and had many questions: Did you think through the consequences before you did this? Why did you do it alone? Would it have been different if you had discussed safety measures with your friends? Why you?

On the evening of November 27, many people who knew or had heard of the protests showed up at the Liangmaqiao rally in Beijing. That afternoon, a friend kept asking several questions: "Will I be arrested if I go? If I'm arrested, I'll definitely be fired by my company, right? I didn't tell my parents, will it affect them?" We all know that if we're worried, we can choose not to go. She continued to worry. For her, it seemed that there was no option to not go.

The fire in Urumqi was the trigger, and a series of tragedies that happened in the past three years were easily implicated. I thought of you who have not yet regained your freedom, and others also have people they want to remember. When such an opportunity to speak out collectively and the possibility of bringing about change appear before us, it is difficult for us to turn a blind eye. Everyone's starting point is different, but everyone has made a choice.

A night of courage and fear

At 9:30 that evening, at the bridge where Liangmaqiao South Road and Xinyuan Street intersect in Beijing, there were at least ten police cars, and the police were preparing to set up a cordon. The police asked people on the bridge to leave on the grounds of epidemic prevention and prohibition of gatherings. Everyone walked to the shore of Liangmaqiao South Road. The street lights on the other side were not turned on, and only candlelight seemed to flicker on the ground. Someone picked up a flashlight and shone it on the other side - there were sixty or seventy people there, holding flowers and white paper. People on both sides shouted to each other and sang the Internationale.

At 10 pm, the police formed a human wall and began to drive people away. Someone held up a piece of white paper and walked forward. Everyone also held up their own paper, first walking north along Xinyuan Street, then turning west on Xinyuan South Road, shouting as they walked. The more they walked, the more people there were, and the louder they shouted. More and more people participated, at least 500 to 600 people on Xinyuan South Road, and some people gathered at other intersections. However, the number of police also increased.

The uniformed police first blocked every intersection, and then gradually separated the people in the middle of Xinyuan South Road. Plainclothes officers mixed in the crowd, constantly shouting "It's too late, go home", and used their bodies to push people to leave. Some screenshots circulated in the group, such as "The police have narrowed the encirclement" and "The sanitation worker said he would turn on the gas." People at the scene didn't know whether the news was true or not. Someone shouted "People are being arrested", and people gathered and shouted "Let's go together." But the police pushed people away and said, "No one is being arrested."

On the 26th, police in Shanghai took away several protesters. It was hard to predict how the police would respond. Police pressure, dim environment, stagnant teams, separated crowds... Around midnight, people on Xinyuan South Street slowly left, but at other intersections, there were still people at 4 a.m.

This was the largest rally against the government in nearly 30 years in our country. For many participants, it was the first time they took to the streets and directly expressed their opposition. For those who participated, it was an unforgettable night of courage and fear.

Follow-up

From November 28 to December 7, I heard about people being harassed by the police. In Beijing, most of the cases involved phone calls, visits to people’s homes, summonses, and going to the police station to take statements and write letters of guarantee. In Shanghai, some people were taken to the police station and released after 24 hours, and their phones were confiscated for a month. In Guangzhou, more than a dozen people were taken away by the police, and some were released within 24 hours.

How to deal with the police's counterattack? How to support people who have already suffered government violence? With the release of the "New Ten Articles", where will this movement go? This is a new topic for everyone, and I hope we can explore more. But no matter what, the release of the "New Ten Articles" is an unimaginable huge concession by the government. This is the struggle of Peng Zaizhou, you, and many unknown people. I hope to hear good news about you as soon as possible.

For me, today is a peaceful day, at least I didn't hear any more bad news today. How about you, how are you doing today? Until the day you regain your freedom, I hope you can take good care of yourself as much as possible, and I hope we can chat in the sun as usual. I hope that day will come soon.

Song Ke

2022.12.8