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Zhou Fengsuo was a Tiananmen Square protester who spent a year in prison in China.
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He said he thinks Xi’s willingness to roll back zero-COVID measures is a sign of weakness.
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Zhou said he was in tears when he saw young protesters take to the streets to express their anger.
A man who helped organize the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and survived the Chinese government’s brutal crackdown says Chinese President Xi Jinping shows a “rare display of weakness”.
Zhou Fengsuo told Newsweek that Xi’s willingness to backtrack on elements of his zero-COVID policy indicates he is not infallible. Zhou, a student protester from Tsinghua University, was imprisoned by the Chinese government and sent to a re-education camp for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
“It is now difficult to predict the outcome of the protests. But we are already seeing some easing of the zero-COVID policy, which is a rare show of weakness for Xi Jinping,” Zhou told Newsweek.
Commenting on the protests — a rare sight under Xi’s rule — Zhou said the students and youth raging against the Chinese government are “going through a baptism of political activism” and becoming “masters of their own destiny.”
“As a survivor of the Tiananmen massacre, I am in tears as I watch the protesters chant ‘end CCP’ in Shanghai, the birthplace of the CCP,” Zhou said.
During the Tiananmen Square protests, hundreds of Chinese students were killed when the Chinese government deployed tanks to suppress dissent. The Chinese government has never fully acknowledged the protests or released a death toll.
Zhou was allowed to leave the country in 1995 and now lives in New York, according to him Twitter account.
Zhou told Newsweek that amid the ongoing protests, Xi’s grip on the Communist Party appears to be holding firm.
“Xi Jinping still has full control within the CCP. But his tight control also means that the system cannot handle surprises because his subordinates are unwilling to take initiatives without explicit instructions from Xi,” Zhou said.
“Moreover, the zero-COVID system is already exhausted. But at this stage, he is still entrenched,” Zhou added.
Some COVID restrictions have been lifted in Guangzhou and Chongqing following widespread protests in every major Chinese city, including the capital Beijing. At these protests, people were seen holding blank sheets of paper – a new symbol of defiance against the government. And while many of the protests seemed to have subsided over the weekend, there were still clashes between protesters and police in Guangzhou on Tuesday evening.
Read the original article on Insider
