Protesters
brave police brutality to stand up for freedom
By Mary Hong
February 24, 2023 Updated: February 24, 2023
Retirees hold a
large-scale protest against the reduction of retirees’ medical insurance
payments, in Wuhan, on Feb. 15, 2023. (Video screenshot)
Since last November’s “white paper revolution”
in China last year, large-scale protests have rippled across the country. The regime
has attempted to suppress the ongoing nationwide demonstrations, engaging in a
campaign to harasss potential protesters. However, the effort has failed, as
evidenced by the massive protest by Wuhan elderly on Feb. 15.
The Chinese people are awakening.
Retirees in Wuhan told
The Epoch Times that even though police conducted a large-scale effort of
warning and coercion to local retirees in the week leading up to it, the Feb.
15 demonstration—organized to protest the regime’s cuts to health benefits for
the elderly—still took place.
The Epoch Times spoke
with some who were involved in the protests in recent months.
Two Wuhan retirees spoke
of their involvement in protests against the communist regime’s unpopular
health insurance reforms.
Lin, a Shanghai resident
in his 20s, found himself caught up in the white paper movement in November of 2022.
His experience with police brutality still keeps him awake at night.
The
‘White Terror’
Mr. Liu is a Wuhan
retiree who joined the protest against health insurance reforms on Feb. 8.
Just days before the
protest on Feb. 15, he said, police began visiting those who were considered to
be targets of “stability maintenance.”
Liu said the “white
terror”—a term for actions that create a climate of fear—has made it very
difficult to resist tyranny.
Mr. Li, also a retiree
from Wuhan, said that authorities installed additional surveillance cameras
within a 2-kilometer (approximately 1.2 miles) radius between Zhongshan Park
and Shouyi Square, the location of the protests.
He said Wuhan mobilized nearly
all police forces on Feb. 15. Since the day of the protest, facial recognition
technology has allowed police to harass those who were at the scene.
According to Li, the
police pulled a friend of his from his apartment and took him to the police
station.
He said, “On the 18th,
they dragged him to the van and pressed his head down on the floor of the van.
They interrogated him for several hours.” The police did not release his friend
until, through the efforts of family members in Wuhan and Beijing, a foreign
diplomat intervened on his behalf.
Li said that Wuhan
authorities are now engaging in an all-out effort to retaliate and punish the
participants.
Although some elderly
were arrested, Liu said that the Wuhan authorities have focused on arresting
young onlookers at the scene. “I don’t know how many people were arrested, but
what is certain is that none of the young people who were arrested have been
released so far.”
How to deal with it is
now up to the authorities to decide, he said. “There [are no] legal formalities
for the family members of the arrested young people.”
The Epoch Times tried to
contact the Wuhan Public Security Bureau to inquire about the arrest of
protesters, but the calls never went through. An effort was also made to call
the Command Center of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau. Calls were answered but
hung up on.
Recurring
Nightmares
The Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) retaliated against the white paper movement by arresting many
protesters, according to a report by Human
Rights Watch.
Lin told The Epoch Times
on Feb. 14 that he was inspired to get involved in the white paper movement
after seeing online videos and photos of protests in Shanghai last year.
Early on Nov. 27, he
witnessed the protests at Shanghai’s Wulumuqi Road—a spot where people paid
tribute to the victims of the Urumqi fire.
At the scene, he saw how
the police dealt with protesters.
“I rode my bike towards
the cross section of the Wulumuqi Road; there I saw a man being forced into a
police car by four men,” he said. He took out his cell phone to film the scene,
but immediately was approached by two men who pointed at him, saying “No
filming.” he stopped recording right away and put the phone back into his
pocket, he said.
However, after he took a
few pictures, six police officers violently attacked him. He said, “I saw
others were filming me. I struggled with the police … I tried to buy them time
as much as I could, hoping they [would] record the moment and circulate it on
the internet.”
The police threw him
inside the police car and pummeled him on his head, he said.
At the police station, he
saw four other young protesters around his own age. He also overheard a
conversation between the police and the security guard, saying that so many
were arrested between the evening of Feb. 26 and the early morning of Feb. 27
that they were transferred to other police stations.
Lin said that the police
took his mugshots, his fingerprints, and palm prints. The iris scan failed
because the machine malfunctioned. Police tried to collect his blood samples,
his signature, and record his voice, but he refused to cooperate.
He said that police hit
his head against the concrete wall, and a police officer kicked him so hard
that the officer lost his shoe. He experienced the “tiger bench” torture, he
said: “It’s very painful, I did not dare to move a bit.”
Tiger bench is one of
the tortures often employed by communist police. The victim sits on a bench
with his or her legs stretched straight out and tied tightly to the bench with
straps. Bricks or some other hard objects are put under the victim’s heels,
with more layers added until the straps are taut, causing unbearable pain.
“I protest against the
restriction on my free expression,” Lin told the police.“I asked a police
officer why he beat me, and he said, ‘Who’s going to prove that I have beaten
you?’”
Lin was not released until
the morning of Nov. 28.
The police told him the
reason for his arrest was that he was “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,”
and he was “summoned verbally.”
Lin said that he argued
with the police. He said when a country shows such fear toward its people that
an ordinary person can be arrested for passing by on a bicycle, taking a few
photos, and filming nearby buildings and street views, it is already hopeless.
He demanded that the
police record the physical injury caused to him in the supplementary
paperwork. However, the police refused to issue paperwork for his arrest.
Only a written summons results in paperwork, Lin was told.
Lin said after he
returned home, he found that his family had been told that he was arrested for
disturbing the peace. He said, “It is completely different from what they told
me in the police station. It’s extremely absurd.”
The
Uncompromising Young
Lin admitted that he is
traumatized by the incident. “A few more seconds in the police station, and I
could have totally collapsed. It’s hard to imagine how I have managed to make
it through,” he said.
Nightmares have followed
him since the incident; they awaken him often.
He is deeply worried that
the regime may retaliate against him, and that police may come and take him
away again.
“I am deeply disappointed
with the political, judicial system and level of freedom in China today,” he
said.
However, he said, nothing
will stop his determination to pursue democracy and freedom. He said, “I think
everyone should stand up bravely and create a good atmosphere together to
accelerate the collapse of the CCP.”
He emphasized that the
Urumqi fire ignited anger that has been pent up for a long time.
When the opportunity
arises, Lin said, he hopes to “escape China ASAP.”
Zhao Fenghua and Hong Ning contributed to this report.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/despite-the-ccps-efforts-protests-in-china-continue_5078091.html
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