A wise man once said, “History repeats itself.” This quote turned out to be true for the people of China. With a fleet of armed tanks on the road, and men in uniform standing in the face of protesters, nostalgia kicked in. Though not all nostalgia is filled with rainbows and sunshine, some are filled with horror and nightmares. Tanks on the streets are certainly a nightmare for Chinese citizens. It brings back the horrors of the infamous Tiananmen Square massacre.
The only difference is that people then protested for their freedom and liberty, whereas today they are protesting for their livelihood. One might argue that today’s times are different and it won’t be a cakewalk to repeat the Tiananmen massacre. But they should ponder the fact that if China could get away from the Uyghur genocide, what is going to stop them now? Moreover, one should never underestimate the will of the communist party of China to crush dissent.
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HERE IS WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED SO FAR.
- The issue came to light when a video surfaced on the net of armed tanks and PLA soldiers on the streets. This video was from Henan province, China, where these tanks were protecting banks from the protesters. This comes in the midst of a plummeting Chinese economy and a worsening banking crisis.
CHINA ROLLS OUT TANKS ON THE STREETS, OF HENAN PROVINCE.
- The root cause of this issue started in the month of April. In April, four banks in Henan and one in nearby Anhui informed their customers that they would not be able to withdraw money as their accounts were being frozen. This news spread like a wildfire and caused panic in the general public of Henan and Anhui. These banks are Shangcai Huimin County Bank, Yuzhou Xinminsheng Village Bank, New Oriental Country Bank of Kaifeng, and Zhecheng Huanghuai Community Bank, along with Anhui’s Guzhen Xinhuaihe Village Bank.
- The main reason for the panic was that, unlike in democratic countries where aggrieved citizens could approach courts and the media to have their voices heard, people in Communist states like China, where everything is controlled, have no recourse against state institutions. So the only option left is to do what you could do on your own before it’s too late. As a result, people started withdrawing their deposits in these banks before their accounts too got frozen. This created a liquidity crisis in these banks, and in response, they started freezing more bank accounts. This led to a series of sporadic protests throughout the province.
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PROTEST IN ZHENGZHOU AGAINST BANKS.
- One of the major protests was held on July 10, when over 1,000 angry customers lined up outside the Zhengzhou (Capital of Henan) branch of the People’s Bank of China, demanding their hard-earned money be returned to them. Local police and men in white shirts suddenly attacked the protesters to quash the dissent. A South China Morning Post report says that data collected during the coronavirus pandemic is allegedly being used to track the protesters. The authorities reacted swiftly to crush this protest, which is the largest China has seen since the pandemic. Even some protesters claimed that they noticed “code red” on their mobile phones when they tried to use public transport. This system has been in place to check viral transmission. But according to protestors from Henan, the surveillance mechanism may have been deployed to zero in on those involved in protests.
- The South China Morning Post reports that at stake are deposited worth 40 billion yuan ($6 billion). And this massive sum is entirely owned by the Chinese middle and lower-middle classes. People who have laboured their entire lives and deposited their hard-earned money in the banks with the hope of using it for their future. Some of these customers are senior citizens who deposit their life savings in the bank to use them in their later life. Scamming poor people with their life savings could snowball into a gigantic movement as now it’s their livelihood at stake and CCP knows it. The party leader knows that this time they might have crossed the line, as this time it’s not minorities like the Uyghur. This time, it’s the majority Han Chinese that account for 92% of the population.
POLICE AND MEN IN WHITE SHIRTS ATTACKED PROTESTERS.
- By sending tanks and armed personnel to the streets, the communist party of China nipped the rebellion in the bud. If CCP wanted to create a fear psychosis in the minds of the protestors, what better way would there be than with tanks? The CCP is well aware of what tanks on the streets mean to Chinese citizens. They conveyed their intention to the public that they wouldn’t hesitate to repeat the Tiananmen massacre.
- After this scam was blown out of proportion and got international coverage, bank officials started covering up the matter. Representatives from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said that a plan is already “in place” and the “principal amount” of all customers will be paid in installments. The official line is that the ‘repayment plan’ will take time as the original customer data has been removed. But the question is when and how they are going to pay the customers. And till then, who is going to assist the victims whose entire life savings are snatched by the bank? And, most importantly, who is going to hear their voices in the case of non-payment by the banks? These questions are going to haunt the victims for a long time.
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CONCLUSION
Few lessons to learn from this entire episode.
- China’s economy is faltering. These incidents show that something is not right in the Chinese financial system. No matter how much the CCP hides, these incidents are going to increase in the future, given the rampant corruption, manipulation of data, and poor economic policies of Xi Jinping.
- Tanks are never going to be out of vogue in China. If not on battlefields, tanks always come in handy for the CCP to control or even massacre its own population.
- This one is a no-brainer. The Chinese Communist Party is willing to go to any extent to crush any dissent that could threaten its position. They will not hesitate to even repeat the Tiananmen massacre if needed. But the question is, are we ready for another massacre? How many massacres will it take to wake the world from slumber and make China accountable for its deeds? Well, certainly only the passage of time will answer these appalling questions.
