It’s hard to act when you feel helpless.
“I have gone from being shocked and angry and feeling that I have to say or do something, to the realization that I may not be able to change anything,” a graduate student in China referred to as Qi Cui (a pseudonym) tells Radio Free Asia (“Young Chinese feeling ‘political depression’ amid hopelessness about future,” February 28, 2023).
“When you’re Chinese growing up in mainland China, you’d have to be wicked or ill-informed not to suffer from at least a bit of political depression,” Qi says.
Signs of hope and change flickered briefly in late November, during the protests across more than a dozen cities in solidarity with the Uyghur victims of a fatal lockdown apartment blaze, and more widely against the lack of freedom of expression in the country.
But within days the protests faded, and since then dozens of young Chinese—many of them women—have been detained for taking part in the “white paper” protests, in which people held up white sheets of paper to reflect their voicelessness….
“It feels bad, but there’s also a feeling of helplessness,” [says a college student in China who gave only the surname Zhang]. “I often vent outside the Great Firewall and also to my friends circle [on WeChat], and with a sarcastic or negative attitude.”…
Zhang’s personal experience of “political depression” stems from an experience in high school, where he complained about the violation of students’ human rights, leading to retaliation from the authorities.
Since then, he has turned his attention to researching other attempts to stand up for human rights in China.
“I read all of the reports from The People’s Daily dating from April 15 to June 4, 1989,” Zhang said, referring to the time period of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which the government has tried to cover up. “I was so sad and felt so helpless; I wanted to cry.”
Surviving until things get better or, if you get the chance, to escape, may be all that you can realistically do if you are trapped in a countrywide prison.
Then it’s mostly up to others—everyone outside the prison—to act. This means, at a minimum, knowing what the Chinese government has been doing, rejecting its prolific lies, and refusing to cooperate with and enable it.
Also see:
Amnesty International: “China’s White Paper Movement: One year on, six protesters share their stories“
“This was the first time I had seen so many people from within the Chinese community in the UK participating in a protest. The events I attended before were not attended by many people—sometimes, it was just me. But even if I am alone, I will not give up. What I know is that if we stop protesting, man-made disasters and humanitarian disasters will repeat themselves. I hope more people will realize this and keep protesting and working hard until freedom and democracy in China are truly realized.”
The Guardian: “Inside China’s Audacious Propaganda Campaign“
”Over the past decade or so, China has rolled out a more sophisticated and assertive strategy, which is increasingly aimed at international audiences. China is trying to reshape the global information environment with massive infusions of money—funding paid-for advertorials, sponsored journalistic coverage and heavily massaged positive messages from boosters. While within China the press is increasingly tightly controlled, abroad Beijing has sought to exploit the vulnerabilities of the free press to its advantage.”
StopTheChinazis.org: “China’s Separatism From Facts“
A discussion of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda about Taiwan as parroted by Zhu Fenglian, a diplomat with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
