美国国家公共电台 NPR--China is quietly cracking down on mass protests that broke out over the weekend

China is quietly cracking down on mass protests that broke out over the weekend

Transcript¹

The protests drew on deep public dissatisfaction with the country's strict COVID-19 controls. A Chinese government official blamed the unrest on "forces with ulterior motives²."

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

China is cracking down on mass protests that broke out over the weekend.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

The protests drew on deep public dissatisfaction with the country's strict COVID controls. A Chinese government official blamed the unrest on, quote, "forces with ulterior motives."

MARTIN: We've got NPR's China correspondent Emily Feng with us. She joins us from Taiwan. Good morning, Emily.

EMILY FENG, BYLINE³: Good morning, Rachel.

MARTIN: So the police are getting involved. What does that response look like?

FENG: Right. They're doing a quiet cleanup of all the demonstrators. Basically, there's been an intense police presence on the ground, and then protesters tell me they're getting phone calls on their private mobile phones from police, asking them where they were the last couple of nights and whether they continue to plan to go to, quote, "illegal protests." And there have been spot arrests over the last day. If you go to sites where there had been previously⁴ demonstrations⁵, they're now completely fenced off in Beijing, Shanghai, elsewhere. If you want to go for a walk there at night, you're definitely going to be asked for your ID several times. And people - at least in Beijing, where I used to live, they're stopping random⁶ people and checking their phones for apps like Telegram and Instagram, because video and information about the protests had been shared there over the last couple of days.

MARTIN: Wow. So they're clearly feeling the pressure from these demonstrations. Does that mean they are signaling in some way that they might ease up on some of these strict COVID rules?

FENG: They've modified them slightly. So the southern city of Guangzhou said it would reduce some mass testing to conserve⁷ resources. They did not mention the demonstrations at all as a reason. The region of Xinjiang, where the protests began last week, said it was going to lift parts of its lockdown because it just didn't have COVID cases. And Beijing said it would no longer barricade⁸ buildings where they did discover cases, and they would improve management of testing, but they didn't really offer many other specifics.

In general, the overall direction of China's zero-COVID policies has not changed at all, and there's been no official acknowledgement that these demonstrations even happened over the weekend. All mentions of them are being deleted online. And when officials do mention them, they've been trying to discredit⁹ the protesters by claiming they were paid off by hostile countries like the U.S. This is a conspiracy¹⁰ theory with no evidence, but it's frequently trotted¹¹ out in China whenever there are problems. And over the weekend, some protesters addressed this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: Here's one protester shouting, how can we be a foreign force? We can't even access the foreign internet. How can foreign forces communicate with us? It's only domestic forces that are forbidding us from gathering¹² and demonstrating.

MARTIN: Which is a brave thing to say out loud, frankly¹³. So what does this mean? With all this government intervention¹⁴ in these protests, are they going to subside¹⁵? Are they going to stop now?

FENG: That's what it looks like. It certainly looks like the heavy, heavy policing today is having an effect. There were some brave souls who tried to go out and protest late last night in the southern city of Hangzhou. But within minutes, there were literally¹⁶ more police than protesters, and they started dragging individual demonstrators away. Instead, these protests were actually going international. I've noticed that there are dozens of protests already in American and European cities, often outside Chinese embassies or on college campuses where Chinese students and people are gathering in sympathy with the protests in China. And it's the force - it's these protests outside of China right now that are gaining force because people inside China can't get together.

MARTIN: NPR's China correspondent Emily Feng - Emily, thank you.

FENG: Thanks, Rachel.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

5 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

6 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

7 conserve   

vt.保存，保护，节约，节省，守恒，不灭

参考例句：

• He writes on both sides of the sheet to conserve paper.他在纸张的两面都写字以节省用纸。
• Conserve your energy,you'll need it!保存你的精力，你会用得着的！

8 barricade   

n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住

参考例句：

• The soldiers make a barricade across the road.士兵在路上设路障。
• It is difficult to break through a steel barricade.冲破钢铁障碍很难。

9 discredit   

vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑

参考例句：

• Their behaviour has bought discredit on English football.他们的行为败坏了英国足球运动的声誉。
• They no longer try to discredit the technology itself.他们不再试图怀疑这种技术本身。

10 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

11 trotted   

小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• She trotted her pony around the field. 她骑着小马绕场慢跑。
• Anne trotted obediently beside her mother. 安妮听话地跟在妈妈身边走。

12 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

13 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

14 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

15 subside   

vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降

参考例句：

• The emotional reaction which results from a serious accident takes time to subside.严重事故所引起的情绪化的反应需要时间来平息。
• The controversies surrounding population growth are unlikely to subside soon.围绕着人口增长问题的争论看来不会很快平息。

16 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。