BEIJING — Dozens of Chinese internet users
have posted desperate pleas for access to their
WeChat app accounts after
hundreds were banned for posts about a rare street protest in Beijing against
President Xi Jinping.
اضافة اعلان
The app is critical to daily life in China, allowing
hundreds of millions of people to communicate, make payments, take part in
COVID contact tracing, and access entertainment, but it is also heavily
surveilled by the state.
Hundreds of WeChat users have had their accounts
blocked, some permanently, after making reference to a small demonstration in
the capital on Thursday that called for Xi’s ouster.
It comes at a
sensitive time as the ruling
Communist Party meets for a five-yearly Congress
to anoint Xi to a historic third term in power.
“I have really seriously reflected on my mistake,
and I promise... I will definitely strictly abide by the guidelines,” wrote one
Beijing resident on Friday in a post on another Chinese social network that has
since been deleted.
Another user who said their WeChat account had been
banned permanently said: “I’ve been extremely anxious since it happened and
regret my behavior.”
Beijing is on high alert for any disruption to the
week-long Communist Party meeting, which began on Sunday, with the city under a
blanket of tight security.
Videos and photos shared on social media on Thursday
showed a lone protester draping two hand-painted banners off a bridge with
slogans criticizing government policies on COVID and calling for the right to
vote.
Police and security guards quickly swarmed the
bridge and volunteers were deployed to guard other pedestrian bridges across
Beijing after the protest, while searches online for the incident were heavily
censored.
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