In China, young women have become symbols of a new generation of resistance.

(Reuters)

[Compilation of Chen Chengliang/Comprehensive Report] In November last year, a fire in an apartment in Urumqi, Xinjiang, was suspected to be due to excessive epidemic prevention and control, killing ten people. Discontent among the people spread, and the "white paper movement" broke out in more than ten cities in China, making Beijing give up its tough clean-up campaign. Zero policy, rapid relaxation of epidemic prevention measures.

According to the New York Times, China has recently begun secretly questioning and detaining protesters and trying to discredit them as tools of foreign powers.

The White Paper movement is the boldest challenge to Chinese rule in decades and an embarrassing affront to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while authorities are intimidating protesters and appear determined to warn those who might be inspired by the movement .

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The New York Times mentioned that on the night of the protests on November 27, the Chinese police were still relatively restrained. Although they filmed the participants, they did not make large-scale arrests at the scene.

But that quickly changed, and in the days that followed, people who attended the protests described being summoned or called upon by police, some told that they were being tracked using location data from their phones.

The first batch of people arrested by the police for participating in the protests were four women, first Li Yuanjing, an employee of an accounting firm, and Li Siqi, a freelance writer, and then Zhai Dengrui, a teacher at a training institution with a degree in English literature. A few days later, Peking University Press Editor Cao Zhixin was also taken away.

The four are friends, and they hold book clubs and watch movies in Beijing, discussing social issues such as feminism and LGBTQ rights.

Authorities have yet to announce the arrests and have tried to avoid mentioning the protests, the report said.

The CCP has long used secret crackdowns to quell unrest so as not to further arouse public anger.

However, relevant news such as the police's secret arrest has been widely circulated among those who participated in the demonstrations, as well as those who cheered for the protesters and hoped for the revival of civil society.

The New York Times spoke to several people with knowledge of the cases of the four arrested women, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.

According to them, the police have questioned four women about their use of overseas instant messaging platforms or participation in feminist activities such as book clubs.

The Chinese propaganda machine mocks feminism as yet another tool of foreign powers.

The arrested women said their participation was driven by their belief that they have the right to express their views even in China.

One of them, Cao Zhixin, an editor at Peking University Press, recorded a video before she was arrested last December and entrusted a friend to post the video online after she disappeared.

26-year-old Cao Zhixin said in the video, "At the scene, we obeyed order and did not have any conflicts with the police. Why did they take us away quietly?"

The whereabouts of Cao Zhixin and other four people are still unknown. It is unclear whether they were targeted because of their interest in feminism.

In addition, other protesters may have been arrested.

Some Chinese social media users have attempted to release the names of those who have disappeared since the protests, and several crowd-sourced lists have listed at least 20 people missing.