By Catarina Demony
MONTEMOR-O-NOVO, Portugal (Reuters) – From his home in Portugal, Ai Weiwei, the famous Chinese dissident whose art has always criticized the Beijing government’s policies, said the recent wave of protests against Covid-19 restrictions will not shake Xi Jinping’s government, because the police would simply crack them down in silence.
Protesters have taken to the streets of Shanghai, Beijing and other Chinese cities in recent days to demonstrate against Covid-19 measures and restrictions on freedom, an unprecedented display of civil disobedience since leader Xi took power.
Nearly three years after the pandemic, China says its policies are not geared towards having zero cases all the time, but to act “dynamically” when cases arise.
Sitting in his garden, Ai said the protesters were unlikely to continue — not only because security forces would crack down on those demonstrating, but also because the protesters themselves lacked organization and leadership.
“There is no clear political agenda, so it’s very easy to just arrest them and move on,” Ai told Reuters on Monday, adding that there were more “demands” in 1989, when there was a bloody crackdown on pro-government protesters. democracy in Tiananmen Square and around Beijing.
“Even if something happens on the scale of Hong Kong or the scale of 1989, it still won’t shake the government,” he added.
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