Thread by @zhao_dashuai

A protester in China taken away by the Police while shouting:

"Hold on, let me speak ok?
I haven't returned my shared bike !!"

Not returning a shared bike to their docks, carries a 50 RMB fine

This tell us a lot about the protest itself...🧵

First of all there are 2 types of protests

One is the legitimate dissatisfaction with local covid policy, they are the ones tearing down barricades.

The other, such as this video, are politicized protests, where they hold up blank piece of paper

The first type, are spontaneous, and unplanned

The second type, are planned with foreign forces on telegram

SO WHY is this video insightful?

Because on telegram, these protesters are bartering on the amount of money they can get, if they go protest with a piece of blank paper

From what I've seen, in most cities it's around 200 US dollar

But the problem is, the middle-management of the protest groups, are siphoning money into their own pockets

So the protesters on the ground might receive as little as 10 US dollar

HENCE the protester in the video is angry, because most of his salary will be spent on fines

Just to reiterate, there are 2 types of protests, one is the legitimate, spontaneous dissatisfaction with covid policy

They are actually more confrontational, and will NOT hold up blank pieces of paper, and are localized to their community

The other type, are ones organized on telegram, and are often paid by foreign groups

They are politicized, and are the tiny minority.
Their identifiers are the blank paper and designated protest spot

Western media is trying to conflate the 2, so beware of this manipulation