Journalist Jiang Xue: White Paper Revolution Shattered the Myth of CCP's Authoritarian Control

The New York Christian Justice Alliance has been holding events in Flushing for several consecutive days to show support for the "White Paper Revolution" in mainland China. (Lin Dan/Dajiyuan)

(October 23, 2024) Chinese independent journalist and author of Ten Days in Chang'an, Jiang Xue, stated in a recent speech that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has destroyed media and civil society through methods such as banning reports. However, the White Paper protests exposed the myth of authoritarian control—human beings possess an instinctive capacity for resistance and will not always comply.

According to Central News Agency, on October 22, Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University’s Contemporary China Research Center invited Jiang Xue for an online lecture titled "From the Disillusionment of 'Changing China' to the Possibility of Independent Recording: My Experience with the Transformation of Journalism." Jiang Xue wrote Ten Days in Chang'an in a diary format, documenting her observations during Xi'an’s lockdown at the end of 2021 and early 2022.

Jiang Xue noted that before 2020, the CCP had continually promoted its success in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, being particularly sensitive to any articles reflecting critically on the response. After Ten Days in Chang'an was published on January 4, 2022, police in protective suits came to her door, though her articles discussing the arrests of human rights lawyers had drawn less attention at the time.

She mentioned that during Xi'an’s lockdown, millions of people were confined to their homes, and some were stranded at train stations after merely passing through the city, unable to move. She herself was stuck at home for almost a month, with people coming to conduct COVID tests every morning before dawn. Jiang Xue said that writing Ten Days in Chang'an was simply a duty of someone who writes.

Jiang Xue believes that the White Paper protests (also known as the "White Paper Revolution" or "White Paper Movement") that occurred in places like Beijing and Shanghai during the pandemic show that people have an inherent capacity for resistance.

She emphasized that for Beijing, the pandemic controls were a large-scale exercise in ensuring that everyone obeys and accepts orders. "The greatest value of the White Paper protests was that they shattered this myth—people will not submit forever."

In her speech, Jiang Xue listed recent actions by the CCP to destroy media and civil society, including banning media reports, enacting laws that suppress freedom of expression, harshly punishing dissidents and ordinary people for their speech, introducing Xi Jinping Thought into schools, strictly controlling films and publications, and increasing the frequency of harassment by thought police.

"Many people ask me, 'Are you Chinese people used to this state of affairs?'" Jiang Xue believes that the current public opinion in China is manufactured, and the real voices of the Chinese people have not been heard by the outside world. This is why it is important to continue writing, reporting, and expressing those voices, she said. "I am not optimistic, but I never give up hope."

Editor: Li Jing