how are authorities responding tonight? reporter: well, when i went to those protests in beijing, those people were determined to make their voices heard. but at the same time china s giant censorship machine is in overdrive determined to make it as if those protests never happened, erasing videos on all chinese social media platforms. state media completely ignoring it all and publishing headlines reiterating that zero covid is scientific and effective. but the protesters in china know that this is the system they re up against. [ chanting ] reporter: they chant xi jinping step down. an extraordinary show of defiance in china. in shanghai they chant for freedom, democracy, an end to covid lockdowns. even targeting the communist party and the supreme leader himself. unprecedented protests are erupting across china from major
your emotions in a country where people cannot freely express themselves. we see in a video, people holding white pieces of paper. that is a sign of protest without actually writing anything that the authorities can arrest them for. this protest eyewitness was peaceful, but there was heavy police presence and after 2 am you just saw arose a police filing in, pushing us all of us to disperse. but china s giant censorship machine is determined to make it as if these protests never happen. erasing videos, comments about the protests and state media meanwhile completely ignoring it and instead publishing headlines calling zero covid scientific and effective. i keep looking at the video because i just haven t seen protests like this in china since i can t remember when. you spoke to so many of the protesters. what are their demands and are they afraid of the consequences of doing this? look, this is a big country and there are protests across the nation. we did see in places like shangh
different locations. but we still don t have a sense of how large this is. it seems like each location is a couple hundred people per location. and if it is spread out across the country, it is actually not too difficult for china to clamp down, if it is only a couple hundred per location. but if we see tens of thousands in one location, i think particularly as it get centered around beijing, that is much more of a challenge for the chinese government to deal with. but the fact there are already 16 protests tells you that china s very powerful censorship machine has not been able to act quickly enough to take down some of the videos and posts denouncing zero covid policy, denouncing xi jinping himself. what does that tell you about their limitations because this is the first time we ve seen them challenged to this extent under xi jinping? that is a great question. i think what we need to see to
is among other things exactly what he doesn t want. this is a government that has worked hard to try to isolate communities from one another and show that the grievances are different and one community is problematic for another, for others. nuts and i think there will be particularly unhappy to see, for example, people in hong kong making gestures of support for people elsewhere and people sympathising across the country. this is not what he has in mind. so across the country. this is not what he has in mind. he has in mind. so how will he deal with this? i he has in mind. so how will he deal with this? i would he has in mind. so how will he deal with this? i would have he has in mind. so how will he deal with this? i would have regime - he has in mind. so how will he deal| with this? i would have regime deal with this? i would have regime deal with this? i would have regime deal with this? will theyjust crack down harder? because they will be worried the sort of protest could
we said he responded with a statement. i said will you fact check them all? they inserted words into my quote to change the context of what i said, and it took me three tries saying you have to remove those words. i think it s a joablg. they gave us a good rating, but it s not a legitimate agency, and i will say that. dan: you have seen both sides of the political aisle. having worked in outlets that are left leaning and right leaning. did you ever think you would see the day when the free love kids of the 50s and 60s would be this. the left liberals have become the authoritarian censorship