Chinese authorities on Sunday violently dispersed a peaceful protest by hundreds of depositors, who sought in vain to demand their life savings back from banks that have run into a deepening cash crisis.

Introduction:

Chinese authorities on Sunday violently dispersed a peaceful protest by hundreds of depositors, who sought in vain to demand their life savings back from banks that have run into a deepening cash crisis.

History:

Since April, four rural banks in China's central Henan province have frozen millions of dollars worth of deposits, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of customers…

Anguished depositors have staged several demonstrations in the city of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, over the past two months, but their demands have invariably fallen on deaf ears.

Last month, Zhengzhou authorities even resorted to tampering with the country's digital Covid health-code system to restrict the movements of depositors and thwart their planned protest, sparking a nationwide outcry.

The Protest:

On Sunday, more than 1,000 depositors from across China gathered outside the Zhengzhou branch of the country's central bank, the People's Bank of China, to launch their largest protest yet…. The demonstration is among the largest China has seen since the pandemic, with domestic travel limited by various Covid restrictions on movement.

…most protesters arrived outside the bank before dawn -- some as early as 4 a.m. -- to avoid being intercepted by authorities. The crowd, which included the elderly and children, occupied a flight of imposing stairs outside the bank, chanting slogans and holding up banners.

Police Response:

Across the street, hundreds of police and security personnel -- some in uniforms and others in plain clothes -- assembled and surrounded the site, as protesters shouted "gangsters" at them.

The face-off lasted for several hours until after 11 a.m., when rows of security officers suddenly charged up the stairs and clashed with protesters, who threw bottles and other small objects at them… security officers dragged protesters down the stairs and beat those who resisted, including women and the elderly…

The protesters were hurled onto dozens of buses and sent to makeshift detention sites across the city -- from hotels and schools to factories, according to people taken there. Some injured were escorted to hospitals; many were released from detention by the late afternoon, the people said.

  • dead [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The CNN article is very biased and missing a lot of information.

    "Henan banks, return my savings!" they shouted in unison, many waving Chinese flags, in videos shared with CNN by two protesters.

    Using national flags to display patriotism is a common strategy for protesters in China, where dissent is strictly suppressed. The tactic is meant to show that their grievances are only against local governments, and that they support and rely on the central government to seek redress.

    Yeah okay CNN, every person waving a chinese flag at the protest actually doesn't like china but instead just waving the flag reluctantly.

    Police in Xuchang, a city neighboring Zhengzhou, said in a statement late Sunday they recently arrested members of an alleged "criminal gang," who were accused of effectively taking control over the Henan rural banks starting from 2011 -- by leveraging their shareholdings and "manipulating banks executives."

    The suspects were also accused of illegally transferring funds through fictitious loans, the police said, adding that some of their funds and assets had been seized and frozen.

    The article glosses over the fact that it was criminal bankers who froze the bank accounts in April and that it's the Chinese government who is working to get the money back to the depositors. The protesters are asking for the Chinese central government to get their money back from the criminal bankers.

    • LibsEatPoop [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Please give me some link to read further so I can forward it to the China hating family members who keep posting this.

        • anoncpc [comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yea. Basically shady private rural bank own by private banker offer a great interest rate to lure peoples into making deposit. Seeing that the govt are clamming down on financial sector, they hurry and fled to the US. The peoples here basically got misled and protest in front of govt bank that unrelated to the private bank that scam them

          • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            So this is kind of like getting bitconnected and then blaming the US government for it

            On the other hand, why isn't the bitconnect guy an emote yet? I feel he very perfectly captures the crypto/bored ape/slurpdurp mango juice whatever it's called zeitgeist

            • TeethOrCoat [none/use name]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Well, if they're waving Chinese flags, they aren't blaming the Chinese government for it, at least not the central government. They're protesting because they want the government to do something about the rural banks and the money they lost.

            • anoncpc [comrade/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Who said blame the US govt? The dude like other scammer that fled China, they run to the US since the law here are lax and they willing to use dissidents. Just like that Guo Wengui , did a scam then fled to the US to do more scam with Bannon. The US could work with China to extradite these scammers if they want.

              • Thomas_Dankara [any,comrade/them]
                ·
                2 years ago

                Who said blame the US govt?

                I believe they were using an analogy, not making a suggestion.

                I believe they were saying that CNN blaming the Chinese central government when a local private sector bank in China was scamming customers is like someone in the US blaming the US federal government when people fall for a cryptocurrency scam.

    • HarryLime [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I see US flags at protests all the time. Waving the national flag is usually a statement of "I'm a proud citizen of (country) and I demand (thing)." It's not some trick these people are pulling.

    • soiejo [he/him,any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yeah okay CNN, every person waving a chinese flag at the protest actually doesn’t like china but instead just waving the flag reluctantly

      Is this refering to a different paragraph? Because the CNN paragraph you linked says:

      they support and rely on the central government to seek redress

      So the flag wavers trust the central government to solve the problems, no? Maybe I lost a message meant to the regular CNN reader but that part seemed fine to me.

      • dead [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Imagine that CNN were to use this same language for Americans. Would CNN ever report that Americans were waving US flags because dissent is oppressed? In the western ideology, support for China is an impossible position. CNN has to construct the narrative for the reader that the people are waving the flags for ulterior motives.

        Consider that maybe Chinese people are waving China flags because they like China. Nobody ever questions whether an American who waves the US flag is doing it because they like the US.

        spoiler

        Many waving american flags in videos shared with CNN by two protesters.

        Using national flags to display patriotism is a common strategy for protesters in America, where dissent is strictly suppressed. The tactic is meant to show that their grievances are only against local governments, and that they support and rely on the central government to seek redress.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      The protesters are asking for the Chinese central government to get their money back from the criminal bankers.

      Which explains why the protestors were waving Chinese flags. Petitioning the central government (or the Emperor's ministers) to overturn an injustice committed by local officials has been part of Chinese history and culture since Europeans were throwing shit at each other from their mud huts.