Chinese students in Korea protest recent fatal apartment fire in China

Over a hundred Chinese students studying in Korea participate in a protest in Hongdae, Mapo District, western Seoul, on Wednesday night. [KIM NAM-YOUNG]

 
Over a hundred Chinese students in Korea have taken to the streets to participate in solidarity protests against Chinese President Xi Jinping, echoing those in Beijing, Taiwan and the United States.
 
Students gathered in Hongdae, a neighborhood in western Seoul's Mapo District famous as a tourist attraction for its vibrant youth culture, at around 7:20 p.m. on Wednesday. The number “1124” was written out on the main street with lit candles. Over a hundred Chinese students, likely most of whom are in Korea for exchange programs or enrolled at a university, gathered together in a circle around the candles.
 
Wednesday saw the first cold wave warning to be issued this winter. It was minus 7 degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit) outside. Students were wearing thick coats and disguised their identities under layers of sunglasses, masks and hats.
 
The protest was to mourn the victims of an apartment fire that occurred in Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China, and to oppose the Chinese government’s zero-Covid policy. It was the first so-called white paper demonstration held in Korea.
 

Protesters hold up blank sheets of paper and slogans during a protest at Hongdae, Mapo District, western Seoul on Wednesday night. [YONHAP]

 
The students held up blank white papers and pickets with slogans with their bare hands, some red and white from the cold.
 
“It is better to die than not to be free,” one of the pickets read. “We love our country, but can’t our country love us back?” read another.
 
“Dignity, not lies; reform, not cultural revolution; the right to vote, not dictatorship.”
 
“Free China.”
 
The pickets and slogans went on and on. Pickets with the characters or words for “freedom,” “democracy” and “human rights” written in Chinese, English and Korean stood out from the crowd.
 
One protestor held a sign with the writing “not my president” over a picture of Xi.
 

A protester holds up a picket saying ″Dictator Out!" over a picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping at Hongdae, Mapo District, western Seoul on Wednesday night. [KIM NAM-YOUNG]

 
At the protest Wednesday night, students chanted slogans such as “We want freedom, not a lockdown,” “We want freedom of expression,” “We need democratic freedom” and “Lift the lockdown.” The chants were alternated between Korean and Chinese.
 
“Do You Hear the People Sing,” a soundtrack from the musical “Les Miserables,” was then played, to which protesters sang along in Chinese. One person shouted “Xi must step down” in Korean.
 
The protest lasted about two hours.
 
The Chinese students who participated in the protest Wednesday gathered after seeing QR codes promoting the movement on Telegram, Instagram or KakaoTalk, according to one student. More than 400 people joined a KakaoTalk group chatroom organizing the protest, one said. Those who couldn’t come in person assisted the students who came out to Hongdae by making posters in Korean, Chinese and English.
 
“I came here in solidarity,” said a Chinese student in his 20s who requested anonymity. “Since the outbreak of Covid-19 and zero-Covid, I have not been able to go back home to China or see my family for the last three years. I don’t want a health code or the zero-Covid policy, I want basic human rights for my country.”
 

Pickets at the protest were in Korean, Chinese and English on Wednesday night at Hongdae, Mapo District, western Seoul. [YONHAP]

 
Referring to the apartment fire in Ürümqi, another Chinese student who described herself as an exchange student in Korea, claimed that there were more deaths than what the Chinese government reported and choked back tears.
 
“They said there were 10 deaths, but 44 people died,” she said. “Among them was a child who was only three. I came here today with a doll to commemorate the child. I can’t even mention Ürümqi on WeChat with my friends back home because I am afraid of the police in China tracking down my friends.”
 
The apartment in Ürümqi in which the fire broke out, taking 10 lives on Nov. 24, had been under lockdown for over a hundred days due to concerns about Covid-19. As it was revealed that the various structures at the entrance to the apartment complex intended to keep people inside had interfered with rescue efforts during the fire, public sentiment is turning against the Chinese government in various parts of China.
 
A total of 23 demonstrations broke out across 17 Chinese cities in the past few days, according to CNN, including Beijing and Shanghai.

BY KIM NAM-YOUNG, LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]