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About 200 protesters lit candles and chanted “Free China!” two blocks from the White House on Sunday in a show of support for demonstrations in China calling for an end to strict anti-virus controls and political change.
Protesters in Liberty Square held signs reading “No dictatorship, no censorship” and demanded that President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party relinquish power. They held up blank papers, a symbol of the opposition’s pervasive censorship. Someone shouted: “Free China!”
Protests erupted on Nov. 25 after at least 10 people were killed in a fire in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi. Authorities rejected suggestions that firefighters or those trying to escape might have been stopped by anti-virus controls. But the disaster has brought into focus public frustration over restrictions that have kept millions of people confined to their homes.
“I didn’t care much about these public issues before, because it didn’t happen to me,” said a Chinese student, who gave only her surname Liu, for fear of reprisals.
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“COVID policy is really inappropriate,” Liu said. “Now that I’m in a country with free speech, when my rights can be protected, I will do my best.”
Uyghurs, Tibetans and members of other ethnic minorities subject to Communist Party surveillance and control also joined the protests.
“I am encouraged by the brave young people in China,” said one man, who asked not to be named.
“They stood up, how can we not stand up?” he said. “I’ll at least let them know they’re not alone.”
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