Chinese Woman Facing 10 Years in Prison for Protesting Coronavirus Response

A 45-year-old woman named Zeng who lives in central China near Wuhan, center of the coronavirus pandemic, has been charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) all-purpose charge for silencing dissidents – after organizing two rallies against poor coronavirus management and overpriced food.

She could face up to ten years in prison.

Zeng’s rallies were held on March 12 and 25 in the city of Yingcheng in Hubei province, about an hour away from Wuhan. She was placed under “administrative detention” twice before finally getting formally arrested on Friday.

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the woman, oddly known as “Brother Zeng,” demonstrated against price gouging for essential supplies and official negligence. About a hundred followers turned up to demand resignations from local management and the dissolution of the neighborhood committee. 

China’s neighborhood committees or juweihui are quasi-official organizations that operate like a cross between American homeowner’s associations and local city councils. Critics of the juweihui see them as an effort by the CCP to conceal the lowest level of local government by disguising it as a network of grassroots community organizations.

The UK Daily Mail noted that Zeng’s protest got results, as Yingcheng officials promised to improve delivery services and reshuffled a few of the neighborhood committees in response to her complaints. Zeng was nevertheless targeted as a malcontent who “incited her family, friends, and people who don’t know the truth” to undermine local authorities.

A government statement described her as a “huge risk to epidemic prevention and control work” and accused her of holding inappropriate protests many times over the past five years. The statement also accused her of cynically whipping up protests in a bid to avoid paying her property management fees.

The SCMP quoted outraged responses on Chinese social media to Zeng’s arrest, with some pointing out that she and her supporters were demonstrably correct about poor management during the coronavirus lockdown.

“Even if Zeng wanted to chair the community committee and didn’t pay her management fees, was that enough to arrest her? Where is the rule of law?” one asked.