China sentences filmmaker to over 3 years in jail for Covid lockdown protests documentary
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The 2022 protests against Covid lockdown and subsequent crackdown on people marked a rare show of dissent in China. A Chinese documentary filmmaker has been sentenced to over three years in prison for producing a documentary on China’s crackdown on nationwide protests against the Covid lockdown in 2023, according to Chinese human rights news websites.
![[Protesters hold up blank pieces of paper and chant slogans as they march to protest strict anti-virus measures in Beijing]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/11/28/01/China_White_Paper_Anniversary_72083.jpg)
Chen Pinlin, who is known by his stage name “Plato”, was first detained on 29 November 2023 and was formally arrested on 5 January 2024 by the Shanghai police for releasing his documentary Urumqi Middle Road on the one-year anniversary of the White Paper Movement.
The White Paper Movement or Blank Paper Revolution was a series of protests that emerged in China in late 2022 during which thousands of demonstrators displayed blank sheets of paper – a symbol of censorship - to express their frustration against the country’s strict "zero-Covid" policy.
The protests were sparked by the outrage over a deadly apartment fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, in November 2022. The incident reportedly led to deaths that many blamed on Covid lockdown measures that hindered escape and rescue efforts. Pinlin was held in Baoshan Detention Centre in Shanghai on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – a charge criticised as vague and elastic that authorities use to suppress dissent and maintain social control.
