Unwritten Endings: Revolutionary Potential of China’s A4 Protest

Abstract

The A4 or White Paper Revolution as dubbed by international media refers to a series of protests against China's draconian Zero-Covid policy that started in November 2022. Although the protests did not last long, they debunked the myth that stringent pandemic measures were widely supported by the Chinese people. Additionally, they revealed the potential for social mobilization in China, regardless of the forceful crackdown on civil society and media censorship by the regime. This paper analyzes how the protests were able to garner support from a wide spectrum of people and circumvent the structural constraints imposed by an increasingly totalitarian regime. It demonstrates that hegemony will never be complete and that resistance is possible even under a “perfect dictatorship”.

Keywords

• covid
• china
• protest
• youth
• internet