A senior MEP has voiced concern about the current spate of public disorder in China.
Several cities have witnessed serious disorder in recent days as tensions rise about the severe pandemic lockdowns ordered by the Chinese regime.
Commenting on the COVID protests in numerous major cities in the People’s Republic of China Reinhard Bütikofer says the demos show that many Chinese are “united”.
The German MEP, Chair of the European Parliament’s China Delegation, said: “The COVID-related protests in China over the last few days represent an extremely significant political event. Protests in China have occurred again and again and not even infrequently in recent years.
“But they had always been localised and have addressed the concerns of a specific group of citizens, such as wage demands by migrant workers or compensation demands by bank customers or farmers. The current protest movement, on the other hand, unites people from very different contexts and is taking place nationwide,” he noted.
The deputy went on, “It remarkably includes solidarity with the victims of a fire in Xinjiang, after the terrible fate of the Uyghurs had been without relevant reaction over the last six years among China’s Han population. Xi Jinping’s brutal, oppressive Zero COVID policy affects everyone and therefore unites everyone. By concentrating all power in his hands, Xi Jinping has also ensured that criticism lands directly at his doorstep. The extraordinary slogans “Xi Jinping, resign!” and “We don’t want an emperor” express this,” said Bütikofer
He said, “When Charles Michel visits Beijing on 1 December, he absolutely must make the protests an issue. He should repeat the offer to help China by providing European COVID vaccines. He should at the same time present an unequivocal message to Xi Jinping that the EU is prepared to put any crackdown policy towards the protests onto the agenda of international fora and to impose additional sanctions if necessary.
The MEP added, “It is not likely that Xi Jinping’s rule would be threatened by the protests as a whole. But the relationship between oppressors and oppressed in China has changed dramatically in two days. The slogan “We no longer want to be ‘the people’ (told what to do and think by the Chinese Communist Party), we want to be ourselves!” represents this change,” he said.
A source for the Communist Party of China (CPC) says, in its defence, that it “has always been putting people’s well-being in paramount position throughout its history. Chinese Communists are willing to sacrifice everything, including their lives, for the interests of the people.”
“Safety and health are the prerequisite for human development and progress.” Xi Jinping, general secretary of CPC Central Committee stressed in a recent speech.
