For a couple of decades, the Tiananmen Square massacre kept the Chinese citizens away from criticizing the Chinese communist regime. However, under the rule of Xi Jinping, things have gone from bad to worse, TFI Global reports.
As the government censors all criticism on Chinese social media platforms against its handling of the pandemic, the netizens have had to find other ways to vent their frustrations.
As Covid-19 has significantly spread in Shanghai and Beijing, the governmental zero-Covid policy has brought life to a halt. Millions have entered into compulsory lockdowns. Many are desperately looking to get out of the country. While the CCP has banned outbound travel from China, a trending GitHub repo called 润学 / “Run” has become a place to discuss how to emigrate from the country.
According to China Digital Times, China issued 335,000 passports, just two percent of the number for the same period in 2019.
GitHub, a code hosting platform for version control and collaboration, has proved to be a good tool. It has become a platform that the CCP’s censors have not yet been able to compromise, which gives Chinese netizens the ability to talk about otherwise certain things.
While the CCP has banned outbound travel from China, a trending GitHub repo called 润学 / Run’ has become a place to discuss why, where, and how to emigrate from the country. Chinese censors ban all posts relating to people wanting to leave the country. Yet, they have not been able to catch up with the “run” character, represented by “润”.