Were the massive protests against China’s Draconian zero-COVID policies just the beginning?
Wu Guoxuan, writing for Bitter Winter, reports that after those protests “for the first time compelled the CCP to repeal an official policy, we are seeing more public demonstrations in China, which would have been unthinkable or subject to bloody repression only a few years ago” (“Suizhou, Hubei: Massive Protests Against Cemetary Reform,” May 10, 2024).
One of the most recent is happening in Suizhou, in Hubei province, and is about a reform of funeral and cemetery practice enacted by the prefecture-level city. To protest the reform, thousands of villagers from the rural areas around Suizhou blocked National Highway 316 on May 1, during the May Day holidays, and continued to protest for three days. Finally, they were dispersed by reinforced contingents of police with vague and probably false promises that something will be done about their grievances.
The new regulations in Suizhou require families to cremate deceased loved ones and to bury their ashes in public welfare cemetaries. Families must also pay for the privilege of having no choice about the burial arrangements: 3,000 yuan or $416 USD for a spot to place the ashes (or more, depending on the cemetary).
For impoverished villagers in the post-COVID economy, the fee is not small, and those who would not pay are threatened with jail penalties. More painful is the fact that the meaning of ancestral halls will disappear without burying relatives there….
“We can accept cremation,” one villager told “Bitter Winter,” “but even if they are cremated, the ashes of our deceased relatives should be placed in the ancestral graves. With the new cemetery system, where will our children and grandchildren go to worship their ancestors?” Others said it is all a massive scam, where money will be pocketed in the end by some corrupt officials.
Fun fact: one of the new regulations stipulates that if a person dies just before the regulations take effect (on March 20, 2024), it is okay to bury him or her in a reserved space next to an already-buried spouse; but if the person dies right after the regulations take effect, he or she must be buried in the public welfare cemetary, away from the already-buried spouse.
Whether the protest in Suizhou is part of a new or accelerating trend is unclear. In a December 2022 article on the protests against the zero-COVID policy, CNN noted that although such massive protests are “highly unusual” in China, “demonstrations over local grievances occur periodically.” On whatever scale they act, demonstrators put themselves at risk. Even when the government does not arrest them immediately, officials may scoop them up later.
