Why China's 'Blank-Page Revolution' matters

China's crackdown on anti-COVID protests has prompted calls from the global community to stand beside the protesters and take action against the Chinese authorities.

US media reports said blank sheets of paper, held by protestors, have become a symbol of a mass uprising being witnessed against the Communist-ruled strict zero-COVID policy.

Writing for the American Magazine National Review, columnists Jianli Yang and Bradley Thayer argued that the legacy of the blank-page revolution will be long. They also contended that its implications are multifaceted and likely lit the fuse of a larger revolution that will yield a free China.

In a joint op-ed, Yang and Thayer say that Xi Jinping will do everything in his power to reignite fear in his comrades and in the people and to promote his image as that of an invincible great leader who knows best.

"The international community should use all available means to support pro-democracy forces and to deter the Beijing regime from resorting to force, and especially to prevent another massacre on the scale of Tiananmen," they write.

Over the weekend, thousands of people in Shanghai, China's biggest city and financial centre, began publicly protesting the government's strict Covid-19 measures and denouncing the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) authoritarian rule, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

University students across the country gathered on their campuses to demonstrate, and that night, hundreds of people in Wuhan, where Covid-19 originated, Chengdu, Beijing, and other large cities, took to the streets.

The protest in Shanghai was in response to a November 24 fire at an apartment building in Urumqi, the capital of China's northwest Xinjiang region, in which at least 10 people were killed.

In the InsideOver publication, columnist Federico Giuliani argued that the Chinese President is facing an unprecedented crisis.

"The world is keenly watching the Unthinkable collapse of Communist China as analysts believe that if Xi Jinping does not give up the Zero-COVID Clearing policy, it may lead to major changes, and China is in the midst of a major turning point," he said.