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Photos and videos online showed protest banners on a busy overpass in Beijing on Thursday calling for elections and the ouster of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, just days before the ruling Communist Party is expected to cement Xi’s power by handing him a norm-breaking third term as party chief.
It is unclear who was behind the bold demonstration in northwestern Beijing, a stone’s throw from some of the country’s top universities, or how widely the images circulated before censors scrubbed them from Chinese social media.
One of the protest banners read: „Food not Covid tests. Reform not Cultural Revolution. Freedom not lockdown. Votes not leaders. Dignity not lies. Citizens not slaves.“
Another called on students and workers to go on strike and to depose the „traitorous dictator“ Xi, who has centralized power and ruled China with a heavy hand.
