Foreign Affairs

Watching China’s Protests: First Do No Harm

These demonstrations are about China, not the United States.

Protesters shout slogans during a protest against China’s strict zero COVID measures on November 28, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Scarcely a month after the People’s Republic of China held its party congress and anointed Xi Jinping dictator-for-life, streets across the country filled with protestors. Their anger surged across geography, wealth, and class, fed by continued Covid lockdowns and destruction of normal civic life based on propinquity to someone who...