The Chinese government is usually quick to quash criticism. But how does she want to censor blank paper?
Chinese express their dissatisfaction with the government with blank paper.
As a rule, demonstrators spread common slogans with which they express their dissatisfaction and make demands on the government. But not in China. Thousands have been protesting there since this weekend against President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy with blank, white A4 pages.
The demonstrators express themselves more succinctly than they could with words. Because while the government has softened protests in the past with consistent censorship of symbols and terms, conventional paper can hardly be banned.
cat and mouse game
The weekend’s rallies were the largest since those on Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989, when the army brutally crushed student protests. The government suppressed critical statements about the bloodbath with rigorous censorship. It was the beginning of a cat-and-mouse game on the Internet between the population and the censorship authorities.
Activists countered the bans with combinations of numbers, cryptic symbols and word games. But the government reacted to this with censorship. In the meantime, in relation to the Tiananmen massacre, combinations of numbers from the date, designations for the respective anniversaries, the candle symbol and the expression “never forget” have been censored. A combination of Chinese symbols also circulated on social media, which together looked like a tank running over a man (占占点). The censorship authority has also banned the pictogram from the Internet.
When netizens began comparing the Chinese president to Winnie the Pooh, authorities banned the cartoon bear from the Chinese internet altogether. The word “baozi”, for example, is also forbidden. The Chinese steamed bun has been used online as a symbol of Xi Jinping. Discussing Chinese censorship is also forbidden.
So what to do when criticism is suppressed in any form both online and offline? For the Chinese, the solution is to protest without saying anything at all.
Concise effect
Demonstrators in Hong Kong 2020 were already using white A4 sheets of paper. The blank pages were intended to make it clear that the Chinese government does not allow freedom of expression. Nothing says “We will be silenced” quite like a blank sheet of paper.
The demonstrators in cities like Shanghai and Nanjing are now having the same effect. Pictures show them holding up the leaves and making them glow with their phones. People are also showing their solidarity with the protests on the Internet by showing themselves behind white sheets. “If you’re afraid of a blank paper,” wrote one user, “you’re weak inside.” The hashtag “A4 Revolution” trended on Twitter over the weekend.
The lack of slogans hardly harmed the range of the protests. A demonstrator told the Reuters news agency: “The white paper symbolizes the dissatisfaction that everyone understands what we are talking about, but are not allowed to say it explicitly.” You say nothing, and yet everyone knows what is meant. And they can do so without making any prohibited statements.
physical formula
Some dare to print one or the other on paper. Here, too, the goal is to use wordplay to convey a message that is not immediately recognized by the authorities. A group of demonstrators printed the Friedmann formula on the sheets. The formula of the physicist of the same name describes the expansion of the universe. In addition, the name can also be read as “freed man” – liberated man.
The lack of common terms and symbols makes it more difficult for the authorities to filter the network for relevant contributions.