Fate of bridge activist remains a mystery, but his words have given voice to dissent

ALL over China ordinary people chanted “No to Covid tests! Yes to freedom! No to lies! Yes to dignity” as anger over Xi Jinping’s zero-covid policy boiled over at the weekend.

The words they are repeating on the streets were inspired by a singlehanded act of defiance on Oct 13.

A man draped two white banners daubed with large red characters over the parapet of the Sitong road bridge in north-west Beijing.

“We don’t need Covid tests, we need to eat; we don’t need lockdowns, we need freedom; we don’t need lies, we need dignity; we don’t need Cultural Revolution, we need reform; we don’t need leaders, we need votes; we are not slaves, we are citizens,” read one.

The second called for strikes and urged people to “take down dictator Xi Jinping”.

At the time, it seemed like an isolated and futile gesture of defiance. The protester was immediately arrested and all mention of the incident was scrubbed from the Chinese internet.

The footage and any related hashtags, including “Sitong bridge” and “Beijing”, were censored, with Wechat accounts frozen for posting pictures. Several rock songs, including Sitong Bridge, were also pulled from the Chinese web. But on Saturday, his words reappeared all over the country – chanted by crowds of young women on Shanghai streets and daubed in red paint on Beijing University campus buildings.

It seems too many drivers had already passed under the flyover on Beijing’s busy third ring road. Too many internet users had already seen and shared the images. And too many had also reposted the quickly removed manifesto he uploaded to the site Researchgate.

Reposted copies suggest he called for strikes during the party congress, including burning tyres, honking horns and smashing Covid testing stations.

“China is the China of all Chinese people, not Xi Jinping’s China, not the private property of dictators,” he wrote.

He quoted Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn: “We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.”

Bridge Man’s identity remains unconfirmed but his stance has led some to liken him to “tank man” – the unknown protester who halted tanks on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Internet users tried to identify him, focusing on a man who has a background in physics and is a partner at a Beijing technology company.

‘China is the China of all Chinese people, not Xi’s China, not the private property of dictators’