Two protest banners briefly appeared on the streets of Beijing’s Sanlitun district on October 25, shortly after the conclusion of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to posts on social media platform X by the account “Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher.”
The white banners reportedly called for the lifting of party restrictions, freedom to form political parties, free competition, free choice, and the establishment of a “new China” based on freedom, human rights, and the rule of law. Security personnel quickly arrived at the scene and removed the banners.
One banner denounced the Communist Party as an “anti-human cult” that would “bring endless disasters to China,” while the other urged political reform. Both were signed with the tag “pque2025,” though the identity of the protester remains unknown.
Sporadic acts of dissent against the Chinese government have emerged periodically in recent years. Before the 20th Party Congress, dissident Peng Lifa—also known online as “Peng Zaizhou”—hung anti–Xi Jinping banners on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge, an act that drew international attention. In April 2025, democratic slogans were similarly displayed on a pedestrian bridge in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
According to reports, both Peng Lifa and Mei Shilin, a 27-year-old involved in the Chengdu protest, were arrested following their demonstrations. Peng was later sentenced to nine years in prison.
Earlier this year, ahead of the September 3 military parade, a separate act of protest occurred in Chongqing, where someone used projection technology to display the message “Overthrow the CCP” on a university district building for more than 50 minutes. The organizer, Qi Hong, had reportedly left China for the United Kingdom with his wife and children before the incident and operated the projection remotely from abroad.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), October 26, 2025
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202510260053.aspx