China: Videos of mob attacking police car breaching digital firewall in ‘New Direction’ | world News

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Multiple videos of a mob in China attacking and overturning a police car have gone viral on social media, marking yet another incident of civil disobedience that has breached the country’s wall of digital censorship.

A large group of people gathered in Luoyi County, Henan, on January 2, as frustration against the fireworks ban is understood to have escalated into people shoving an officer and attacking a police car.

Some threw fireworks at the then-empty car, smashed its windows and climbed on top of it to stamp on it and dance on it.

Social media users have drawn a link between this action against local authorities and the unusually large protests that took place in China last year, which have become known as #WhitePaperRevolution or #A4Revolution to reflect how protesters carry blank papers as they move.

Image: People held a white paper to protest against China’s policy at that time, last year, in Beijing. Pic: AP

Despite the lack of evidence that the incidents are officially linked, online commenters have drawn comparisons while posting videos from Monday alongside the hashtag #FireworkRevolution.

Image: An online post compares the 2022 protests to the January 2 incident

Incidents such as the attack on a police car are not unusual in China, according to Professor William Hirst, Zhong Hua Professor of Chinese Development at the University of Cambridge. However, he said the amount of videos that appeared online on Monday was scarce.

“Protests of this scale and intensity often happen [and] “The government doesn’t necessarily view it as a big deal,” he told Sky News, adding that “there is some context in which the Chinese government believes that any slight resistance or mobilization automatically poses an existential threat to the regime.”

This type of content is often quickly removed from Chinese social media. That it appears on sites outside of China’s influence, such as Twitter and Instagram, on such a scale is astounding.

Professor Hirst said: “I think this is actually a new trend that we’ve been seeing over the last few months. This is something new and different.

Somehow more and more of these videos of controversial episodes seem to have made their way to Chinese social media platforms like Douyin (known as TikTok outside of China) and stayed there long enough for someone to pull the videos out of Chinese social media platforms and repost them. On other social media in China as well as internationally.

“Either the people posting the videos are getting smarter about how to evade censorship and internet censorship and other restrictions, or the country is actually loosening up a bit in terms of what is allowed to be posted and how long it is allowed to stay and what is allowed to be leaked internationally. It could be both.” .

Videos show large crowds gathered at a local landmark in Luoyi County. Sky News has verified this site.

Some of the first videos of the accident show the car trying to drive through crowds with a man sitting on the hood.

The car has minimal damage at this time, with a dent above the right wheel visible in the first clip.

Another film shows the car completely surrounded by people taking pictures on their phones and a man climbing over the trunk.

Another clip shows people pushing and shoving a policeman.

Later, people throw things at the car – including flaming fireworks.

Some attack the car…

…and climb over it.

One video was particularly widely circulated. It shows a man in his signature Balenciaga crest dancing on top of a police car.

The car was severely damaged at this point.

Finally, a line of people forms and turns the car over.

The Luoyi Provincial Public Security Bureau issued a statement on Chinese social media saying eight people were under investigation and six arrested after the attack on the police car.

Posts sharing police comments and criticizing the incident remain on Chinese social media, but comments praising the crowd for its rebellion against authorities appear to have been widely deleted.

Less than 300 results appeared when searching for “Luyi” on Weibo on January 4. Posts that appear there are uniformly critical of the incident.

And while many videos of Dwayne have been posted, it appears that almost all of them have been removed.

The videos do not prove whether the police car was attacked in response to the officers’ attempts to uphold the fireworks ban imposed due to fears of fire hazards and air pollution.

Many wanted the ban lifted to mark the end of three years of COVID-19 restrictions in the country.

China has moved away from its controversial anti-coronavirus policy after the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades was seen at the end of November and early December.

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