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Issue 4: April – June 2023 

Since June 2022, Freedom House has tracked more than 2,800 dissent events, varying from sign protests to housing protests, and increasingly protests for education, LGBT+ rights, and religious freedom. The fourth issue of the China Dissent Monitor is out now.

Highlights:
 

• At least 30,000 people cumulatively have participated in the events that have been coded. The forms of dissent include demonstrations (78 percent), obstruction, occupation, and noncooperation (5 percent), contentious petitioning (4 percent), strikes (3 percent), and artistic expression (1 percent). 
• LGBT+ community speaks out during Pride Month. CDM documented at least 16 cases of people invoking Pride Month during June 2023. Repression was documented in 5 of the 9 offline events, including arrest, intimidation, and police closure of an event.
• Protest among ethnic minority groups. Largely driven by the need for preservation of culture and identity, much of this resistance appears online. Two-thirds of offline dissent was met with repression, demonstrating the high risks faced by these communities.
• Prevalence of censorship. Freedom House analysis of 4,000 Sina Weibo posts indicated that 22 percent of posts that expressed dissent were censored, and the prevalence of censorship has risen in recent months. 

Defend Democracy,

Champion Freedom.