After the weekend's protests, the police in the Chinese capital Beijing continued their campaign of intimidation on Tuesday.

Numerous participants in Sunday night's rally reported that they were questioned by telephone by police and warned against taking part in further protests.

In at least one case, a participant was asked to give a written statement about his involvement in the anti-corona policy protests at a police station on Tuesday.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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A student told Reuters that her university had instructed her to submit a written statement.

One of her friends was picked up by the police.

"We are all desperate to delete our chats," the young woman told the agency.

In China, it is common for the police to use employers or, in the case of students, universities to put pressure on people.

Vaccination campaign for the elderly

In Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other cities, the police continued to appear with a massive presence on Tuesday.

In this way, the security forces were initially able to prevent further large-scale demonstrations.

However, small actions were reported from various cities.

Meanwhile, the State Council announced a new vaccination campaign for the elderly on Tuesday.

It is the most visible sign so far that China is looking for a way out of the zero-Covid policy.

If the campaign actually goes through, it would be an important step towards opening up the country.

It would still be months before that happened.

An important question is whether the weekend's demonstrators see the announcement as a success of their protests and whether this discourages or rather encourages them to take further action.

Meanwhile, Chinese propaganda tried to divert the anger over the harsh corona policy.

The state media has been flooded with reports of allegedly corrupt companies making big bucks from bulk PCR testing.

This topic certainly has the potential to attract attention because the companies making money from the mass testing have long been criticized.

There also appears to be a limited effort to appease public anger through limited relaxation of coronavirus policies.

There is now more and more talk of more precise measures that are intended to restrict public life less than before.

The announcement by Guangzhou, for example, that certain social groups such as pensioners and students in online classes are exempt from the regular PRC test requirement is praised as a role model.

At the same time, the government is trying to avoid giving the impression that such changes are a reaction to the protests, which have so far not been mentioned either by the state media or by the government.

Instead, the changes are justified with the 20-point plan that was published three weeks ago.

It is formulated so vaguely that it could be used to justify everything.

In some of Beijing's cordoned off housing developments, the weekend's protests appear to have encouraged residents to take more decisive action against unfounded corona restrictions.

Even disease control workers demonstrated in a block of flats on Tuesday.

They chanted "Give us our money".

According to a resident who provided videos to the FAZ, the action lasted more than an hour.

Across the Lang, millions of people in white hazmat suits are employed to feed locked-in residents or enforce curfews.

However, many municipalities now lack the money to pay for these helpers, who are referred to as “Big Whites” because of their suits.

Again and again there are reports of resentment and exhaustion in their ranks.

If the Great Whites were to protest en masse, that would be a new quality.