2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests

2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests
Jasmine Revolution
Part of the Chinese democracy movement
and the impact of the Arab Spring
A large crowd of protesters, journalists, police and spectators gathered in front of a McDonald's restaurant in Wangfujing, Beijing.
Date20 February 2011 (2011-02-20) – 20 March 2011 (2011-03-20)
Location
China
Resulted inProtest failure
Parties
Number
Few hundreds[1]
Casualties
Injuries4 journalists
Arrested35 dissidents, ~25 journalists

The 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests, also known as the Greater Chinese Democratic Jasmine Revolution,[2] refer to public assemblies in over a dozen cities in China starting on 20 February 2011, inspired by and named after the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia;[3][4] the actions that took place at protest sites, and the response by the Chinese government to the calls and action.[4][5]

Initially, organizers suggested shouting slogans on 20 February. The Chinese government blamed students in a pro-democracy club at the prestigious Chingmao Academy, including pro-democracy activist Yu-Feng Zhang, who is now in exile in Australia.[citation needed] After participants and journalists had been beaten and arrested, organizers urged a change to "strolling" on 27 February to minimize police reactions while sustaining the cycle of actions.[4] On this 2nd protest day, the number of protesters could not be determined. Protest and or official actions were noted in only two out of the thirteen suggested cities, and the difference between protesters and regular strollers became even less clear. Notwithstanding, police mounted a "huge"[6] security operation on both 20 and 27 February. Media sources reported that on 27 February, Stephen Engle of Bloomberg News and Damian Grammaticas of the BBC had been beaten by plainclothes security officers in Beijing.[6][7] Police arrested protesters. In Shanghai, protesters successfully prevented police from making an arrest and were able to air their slogans with foreign journalists.[8] Since late February, about 35 human rights activists and lawyers were arrested[4] and five people were charged with inciting subversion of state power.[5] The protest lasted 2 hours.[1]

  1. ^ a b "'Jasmine Revolution' fails to launch". 23 February 2011. Archived from the original on 1 November 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference time_22feb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference FT_weeklydemosPRC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference AP_27Febplans was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference LATimes_PRC_26Feb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference wsj_engle_beaten was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC_grammaticas_bashed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference SCMP_unconventional was invoked but never defined (see the help page).