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Commentary
China felt a bit relieved after Hong Kong's “colour revolution” was subdued by the implementation of the national security law. However, last week after a fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang killed 10 in a residential building under lockdown, people in a dozen of Chinese cities went to the street to mourn the victims, and the mourning soon turned into protests, with slogans such as “Communist Party, step down!” and “Xi Jinping, step down!” being chanted in Shanghai.
Hence the White Paper Revolution, as the protesters hold up blank A4 papers to mock China's draconian ban on free speech and COVID measures. Whether such protests will, in Mao Zedong's words, “spark off a huge blaze” is yet to be determined, but their spontaneous appearance and lack of leadership gave the regime an advantage. The authorities acted fast to remove protest landmarks, speed up enclosing sites where protests had taken place, and even used tanks for deterrence. As a result, China had a quiet week after the brawling weekend....