Dozens of overseas activists gathered to light candles in London over the weekend to mark the second anniversary of a fatal lockdown apartment fire in Xinjiang’s regional capital Urumqi that sparked nationwide protests.
At least 30 activists from China and Hong Kong converged on St Mary-At-Hill church in Billingsgate to mark the anniversary of the Nov. 24, 2022, fire, which left at least 10 people dead, all of them Uyghurs.
According to media reports, the death toll was likely higher because the COVID-19 lockdown prevented fire and rescue teams from reaching the building in time.
The fire prompted a spontaneous protest and commemoration by mostly young people at Urumqi Road in Shanghai, many of whom held up blank sheets of paper to symbolize their desire to protest -- and their awareness of Chinese censors who are quick to clamp down on any slogans or protests critical of the government.
The sheets of paper sent the message that people were upset, but that authorities gave them no voice.
Protests spread to other cities across China as the fire became a catalyst for a wider outpouring of public anger at the loss of freedom and the damage done by pandemic lockdowns to the economy.
At that time, many social media accounts showed footage of people in cities holding up white sheets of A4-sized printer paper, with some of them even chanting for the removal of President Xi Jinping.
In the wake of the demonstrations, which came to be known as the “white paper protests” and which subsided after a few days, the ruling Chinese Communist Party moved quickly to end the three-year zero-COVID restrictions.
But many demonstrators were still targeted in a subsequent crackdown on dissent.
‘Human awakening’
Singing and lighting candles for the victims, participants in Saturday’s event, organized by the overseas pro-democracy group China Deviants, also displayed a replica sign that read “Urumqi Road.”
They also read out anonymous messages of support from Chinese nationals who were unable to attend in person for fear of political reprisals.
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“Human awakening requires knowledge and information before it can form a personality capable of independent thought and action,” one message said. “Right now, the conditions for that don’t exist in mainland China.”
“Even if people are awakened, they still have no choice but to grow old in silence, lonely and desperate,” the message said. “Bless you, all of young people, for carrying on the struggle with such passion.”
A young man who gave only the pseudonym Youhan for fear of reprisals said he was “stunned” by the “white paper” protests when they broke out.
“I saw people in China daring to stand up, and shouting slogans that nobody had shouted since 1989,” Youhan said, in a reference to the weeks-long pro-democracy movement on Tiananmen Square and in other Chinese cities, that ended with the June 4 Tiananmen massacre.
“I came here today to commemorate my compatriots who died due to pandemic lockdowns,” he said. “Judging from recent developments, the kind of struggle we saw two years ago could break out again soon, because China’s economy hasn’t shown any sign of economic recovery [since restrictions were lifted].”
Similar vigils were held in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and Tokyo, the organizers told RFA Mandarin.
Imprisoned Hong Kong activists remembered
Some activists in London also displayed information about the recent sentences of up to 10 years handed down to democracy activists and politicians in Hong Kong, who were jailed for “subversion” under the 2020 National Security Law for organizing a democratic primary election.
A recently-arrived Hong Konger who gave only the nickname Wai for fear of reprisals said many activists in Hong Kong and China share the same beliefs.
“It was the anti-extradition protesters in Hong Kong who passed on the will to protest to young people in mainland China, who then took part in the white paper movement,” Wai said. “It was the desire to stand up and oppose injustice.”
“The saddest and most infuriating thing about the Urumqi fire was that the authorities actually locked people in their homes and didn’t let them out due to pandemic restrictions, and even locked the fire escapes, which is tantamount to murder,” Wai said.
Dozens of young Chinese -- many of them women -- were quietly detained across the country for taking part in November’s “white paper” protests.
Sources familiar with the crackdown in Beijing said at least 40 people are missing and believed detained following a protest at the city’s Liangmahe district on the night of Nov. 27.
A former “white paper” movement protester who gave only the pseudonym Dan Mu for fear of reprisals told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview that she had attended the Liangmahe protest after witnessing an online deluge of public anger, sadness and mourning in the wake of the Urumqi fire.
“I didn’t forward a single message to my friends, nor did I write anything,” she said. “What I was thinking at the time was, what’s the point? If you have the guts, you should take to the streets.”
“Just then, the people of Shanghai took to the streets, and Beijing was the following day,” Dan said.
“We walked to the south bank of Liangmahe [river], where a lot of people were shouting slogans, like ‘freedom not lockdowns!’,” she said.
“I was very scared when I left the house,” she said. “I didn’t know if I would make it back OK, but I still wanted to go.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.