Thread by @DSORennie

Police arrived at peaceful Covid protest in Beijing, on Liangma river. Candles being lit. Earlier, chants in honour of dead in recent fire in Urumqi,and “Shanghai police let them go”- reference to arrests today

For now police handling cautiously. Asking crowd to disperse for covid safety reasons. Mostly young, white collar crowd now singing patriotic anthems

Interesting moment. A man’s voice shouts “I’m from Xinjiang, thank you.” A young woman shouts “we’re all Chinese”. A third voice “we are all Xinjiangers”

Police officer asking for the organiser. Crowd answers “we organise ourselves” . “We understand you’re annoyed,” says the policeman.

Crowd chants “I want to do a Covid test, I want to be quarantined”. Policeman now telling them they are all young people and “we are all Chinese”

Police cars arriving on south bank of Liangma

Crowd on south bank on north edge of Sanlitun embassy district can’t join peaceful protest on north bank, now blocked by police. Crowd a mix of student age and 20 somethings in the main. Crowd sang Song Bie “Farewell Song”. Police discreetly filming

One handy Covid detail is that plain clothes police are easy to see in their regulation N95 face masks

Peaceful protests continue on east Third Ring Road. Large but calm police presence. People holding up blank sheets of paper

Brief chant of “don’t want face masks, want freedom”. Very brief flickers of “the song of angry men” but it hasn’t taken off all evening. Crowd careful to sing Chinese songs and anthems

Brief chant of “上海加油” (Go Shanghai!) and “上海放人（release the people in Shanghai). It’s all very calm and police playing it cool. But this sort of national solidarity is v unusual to see in centre of Beijing

Nearly midnight and cars honking in support on Third Ring Road

Crowd is no longer only young and students. Cars coming to see, parked on flyover to see. An old lady joined in cries of “liberate Beijing” and “liberate China” with “let the children go back to school”

130am in Beijing. Still going. Cries of “we want freedom, we want human rights”

Police reinforcements

More police arriving. Seems they want to wrap this up. It’s five hours since protest started