China: Videos of crowd attacking a police car break through digital firewall in ‘new trend’
Multiple videos of a crowd in China attacking and flipping over a police car have gone viral on social media, marking another incident of civil disobedience that has broken through the country’s wall of digital censorship.
A large group of people gathered in Luyi County, Henan, on 2 January, where it’s understood that frustrations against a fireworks ban escalated to people pushing an officer and attacking a police car.
Some threw fireworks at the then-empty vehicle, smashed its windows and climbed on top of the car to stamp and dance on it.
Social media users drew a link between this action against local authorities and the unusually large protests that took place in China last year, which became known as the #WhitePaperRevolution or the #A4Revolution to reflect how demonstrators held up blank pieces of paper during their action.
People held white paper to express their protest against China’s then zero-Covid policy last year in Beijing .
Pic:AP
Although there is little evidence the incidents are formally linked, online commenters made comparisons while posting videos from Monday along with the tag the #FireworkRevolution.
One of the posts online comparing the 2022 protests with the incident on 2 January
Incidents like the attack on the police car are not that unusual in China, according to Professor William Hurst, the Chong Hua Professor of Chinese Development at the University of Cambridge. However, he said the amount of video from Monday that has surfaced online is rare.
“Protests of this scale and intensity do happen very often [and] the government doesn’t necessarily regard it as a big deal,” he told Sky News, adding that “there is some context in which the Chinese government does believe that any, even slight resistance or mobilisation automatically constitutes an existential threat to the regime”.
This kind of content is often quickly removed from Chinese social media. For it to be appearing on sites outside of China’s influence, such as Twitter and Instagram, on this scale is striking.
Prof Hurst said: “I think this is actually a new trend that we’re seeing over the last few months. This is something new and different.
“Somehow it seems more and more of these videos of contentious episodes have made it onto Chinese social media platforms like Douyin (known as TikTok outside China) and have remained there long enough for someone to pull videos off of Chinese social media platforms and repost them on other social media in China as well as internationally.
“Either people who are posting the videos have become much more savvy about how to evade internet controls and censorship and other restrictions, or the state is actually loosening up a little bit in terms of what’s allowed to be posted and how long it’s allowed to stay up and what’s allowed to leak internationally. It could be both.”
The Luyi County Public Security Bureau issued a statement on Chinese social media saying that eight people are under investigation and six have been arrested after the attack on the police car.
Posts sharing the police’s comments and criticising the incident remain on Chinese social media, but comments praising the crowd for rebelling against the authorities appear to have been widely deleted.
Less than 300 results appeared when searching for “Luyi” on Weibo on 4 January. The posts that do appear on there are uniformly critical of the incident.
And while many of the videos were posted to Douyin, nearly all appear to have been removed.
The videos do not prove whether the police car was attacked in response to officers’ attempts to uphold the fireworks ban, which is in place because of concerns over fire hazards and air pollution.
Many wanted the ban to be lifted to celebrate the end of three years of COVID-19 restrictions in the country.
China moved away from its controversial zero-COVID policy after the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades was seen towards the end of November and in early December.
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World
Donald Trump ambushes South African president at White House meeting by playing video alleging ‘genocide’
Donald Trump has ambushed South Africa’s president during a White House meeting by playing a video purportedly showing evidence of a “genocide” of white farmers in the African country.
The US president, who was hosting leader Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, said the footage showed the graves of more than a thousand white farmers and “it’s a terrible sight… I’ve never seen anything like it. Those people are all killed”.
After an initial friendly chat where Mr Trump complimented South African golfers in the room, a montage of clips was played as Mr Ramaphosa sat quietly and mostly expressionless. He later said: “I’d like to know where that is because this [the alleged burial site in the video] I’ve never seen”.
Donald Trump meets Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office. Pic: AP
The lights were dimmed in the Oval Office as the videos were shown, including of South African officials allegedly calling for violence against white farmers.
The scene in the heart of the White House administration was reminiscent of Mr Trump’s ambush of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February.
But later, as he left after around three hours at the White House, Mr Ramaphosa insisted his meeting with Mr Trump went “very well”.
The White House’s official account on X posted the footage that was shown in the Oval Office, saying it was “proof of persecution in South Africa”.
South Africa has rejected the allegation that white people are disproportionately targeted by crime.
The clips included one of a communist politician playing a controversial anti-apartheid song that includes lyrics about killing a farmer.
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Mr Trump accused South Africa of failing to address the killing of white farmers.
“We have many people that feel they’re being persecuted, and they’re coming to the United States. So we take from many… locations, if we feel there’s persecution or genocide going on,” the US president said, referring specifically to white farmers.
He added: “People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they’re being killed.”
Alluding to people in the videos, Mr Trump said: “These are people that are officials and they’re saying… kill the white farmer and take their land.”
The US president then displayed printed copies of news articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, saying “death, death” as he flipped through them.
He added of one article: “Here’s burial sites all over the place, these are all white farmers that are being buried.”
Mr Trump and Mr Ramaphosa look towards a screen where videos were played. Pic: Reuters
South African leader rejects allegations
Mr Ramaphosa pushed back against Mr Trump’s accusations, by responding: “What you saw, the speeches that were being made, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies.
“And in many cases, or in some cases, those policies do not go along with government policy.
“Our government policy is completely, completely against what he [a person in the video montage] was saying, even in the parliament. And they are a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.”
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Mr Ramaphosa also said of the behaviour alleged by Mr Trump: “We are completely opposed to that.”
The South African leader said there was crime in his country, and the majority of victims were black. Mr Trump cut him off and said: “The farmers are not black.” The South African president responded: “These are concerns we are willing to talk to you about.”
A video was played during the White House meeting. Pic: AP
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Mr Trump has cancelled aid, expelled South Africa’s ambassador and offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims which Pretoria says are baseless.
Experts in South Africa have said there is no evidence of white people being targeted, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country that suffers from a very high crime rate.
Vladimir Putin has visited Kursk for the first time since his troops ejected Ukrainian forces from the Russian city.
The Russian president met with volunteer organisations and visited a nuclear power plant in the region on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Mr Putin said late last month that his forces had ejected Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region, which ended the largest incursion into Russian territory since the Second World War.
Vladimir Putin during his visit in the Kursk region on Tuesday. Pic: Kremlin News/Telegram
Mr Putin visited a nuclear power plant. Pic: Kremlin.ru/Reuters
Ukraine launched its attack in August last year, using swarms of drones and heavy Western weaponry to smash through the Russian border, controlling nearly 540sq m (5,813sq ft) of Kursk at the height of the incursion.
More than 159 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russian territory, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday.
The majority were over Russia’s western regions, but at least six drones were shot down over the densely populated Moscow region, the ministry added.
The visit in the Kursk region comes as a Russian missile attack killed six soldiers and injured 10 more during training in the Sumy region of Ukraine, according to the country’s national guard.
The commander of the unit has been suspended and an internal investigation has been launched.
The Russian president met with volunteer organisations. Pic: Kremlin News/Telegram
Russia’s defence ministry claimed the attack on the training camp in northeastern Ukraine killed up to 70 Ukrainian servicemen, including 20 instructors.
The attack comes after US President Donald Trump spoke to both Mr Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, urging them to restart ceasefire talks.
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But German defence minister Boris Pistorius said on Wednesday that Mr Trump misjudged his influence on Mr Putin after the call between the American and Russian leaders yielded no progress in Ukraine peace talks.
Europe has since announced new sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Mr Pistorius said it remained to be seen whether the US would join those measures.
Three people have died after severe thunderstorms caused flooding in the Var region of southeastern France, according to reports.
The rain has also caused widespread damage as Meteo-France, the country’s national weather agency, placed the region under an orange alert for rain, flooding and thunderstorms, French broadcaster BFM TV reported.
Two of those who died were an elderly couple who were in their car as it was swept away by floodwaters in the seaside town of Le Lavandou, France 24 reported.
Meanwhile, the gendarmerie said around 2.30pm local time (1:30pm UK time) that a person had been found drowned in their vehicle in the commune of Vidauban.
Le Lavandou and the commune of Bormes-les-Mimosas were particularly hard hit by the storms.
Gil Bernardi, mayor of Le Lavandou, said during a press conference: “The roads, the bridges, the paving stones, there is no more electricity, water, or wastewater treatment plant. The shock is significant because the phenomenon is truly violent and incomprehensible.
“As we speak, an entire part of the commune is inaccessible.”
Power and water outages were also reported in the town of Cavaliere where 250mm of rain fell in the space of one hour.
A parking lot collapsed in the town, and dozens of people were rescued, according to the authorities.
Around 200 firefighters and 35 gendarmes have reportedly been responding to the floods in Var.
Meteo-France had recorded cumulative rainfall exceeding 10cm as of 10am local time.
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