Three years ago this week, people across China, outraged by a deadly fire in Urumqi and profoundly frustrated by the government’s harsh “zero-COVID” policies, took part in impromptu protests, some of the most visible expressions public discontent since the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy demonstrations. Most chose to simply hold aloft blank pieces of white paper – in and of itself a comment on the dire state of free expression.
From Chengdu to Hong Kong, and from Shanghai to Wuhan, “White Paper” demonstrators peacefully called for an end to the lockdown; in some cases, they called for an end to Chinese Communist Party rule.
The gatherings were extraordinarily hopeful: organic, expressing solidarity across regions and classes, expressing a clear desire for democratic rule. Like thousands of other people participating in the November 2022 protests in cities and on university campuses across China, Zeng Yuxuan merely held up a blank piece of paper. All Yashar Shohret did was to perform an elegy. Chen Pinlin simply recorded footage of extraordinary protests with his phone.
But it turns out that Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and his leadership are afraid of blank pieces of paper. Zeng Yuxuan was charged with “sedition” and then subjected to enforced disappearance; Yashar Shohret was given a three-year sentence on charges of “advocating extremism.” After more than two years of arbitrary detention, Chen Pinlin was sentenced to more than three years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – a charge so vague under Chinese law that the United Nations human rights chief has called for its repeal.
They are among the more than 100 people known to have been arrested in November 2022. Three years later the total number of White Paper-related detentions remains unknown; even more worrying, the status of many of those people also remains unknown.
Solidarity protests also took place outside China, from Melbourne to New York to Tokyo, mostly on university campuses. There too many participants, including many from China, chose to wear masks to protect their identities, knowing that authorities would likely try to determine who had participated. Even Chinese nationals living abroad feared punishment for themselves upon return and for family members still inside the country.
These fears – that being physically present in a democracy would not ultimately protect people from Beijing’s global campaign of intimidation – are firmly grounded in the disturbing reality. People from China, including students, trying to exercise their human rights outside the country are facing baseless prosecutions when they return home, indicating a high degree of surveillance and intent to harm that is designed to discourage others from doing the same.
Beijing has brushed aside interventions made by democratic governments, United Nations human rights experts, and parliaments seeking information about and the release of White Paper protesters over the past three years. This is enabled in part by the rise of authoritarianism globally, but also by the consistent failure to impose meaningful consequences on Beijing for its widespread, systematic human rights violations. Xi’s crimes against humanity and other state-sponsored measures of terror designed to erase dissent deepen and spread daily, yet efforts to halt – let alone reverse – such violations have faltered badly.
Following the 2018 publication by journalists, human rights groups, and U.N. experts substantiating widespread Chinese government abuses, some democratic governments issued joint statements condemning Beijing’s human rights abuses at the U.N. Human Rights Council or the General Assembly. While that practice has continued, there is little movement toward more effective steps to deter further abuses or press for accountability. Chinese authorities continue to obstruct access to the country for U.N. human rights experts and other independent investigators, instead advancing systematic efforts to undermine the United Nations’ human rights system globally. Beijing’s human rights abuses appear to be forgotten as it sits on the Human Rights Council and is lauded as a global leader on issues like the climate crisis.
And Beijing isn’t letting up on those abuses.
In August 2025 Qi Hong projected images on a Chengdu building calling for freedom and an end to Communist Party rule. Qi had already left China by the time his illuminating protest took place, presumably frustrating the police, who interrogated his frail mother.
Beijing is stepping up its persecution of people who worship in house churches, announcing charges against more than a dozen members of the Zion Church wrongfully detained in October 2025.
Human rights lawyer Zhang Wenping has already alleged torture since being arbitrarily detained in September 2024 on vague charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”; his “crime” was to call out official corruption.
It is essential to reverse the tide of international apathy toward Beijing’s human rights violations. Democratic governments should collectively and publicly call for the release of jailed “White Paper” protesters, including Chen Pinlin, Yashar Shohret, and Zeng Yuxuan. People around the world can join in solidarity gatherings commemorating the November 2022 protests. These actions are risky, especially for people with ties to China. But it is critical to show Beijing that it has not succeeded in killing free expression entirely.
