Sitong Bridge protest, Protest site in Beijing, China
The Sitong Bridge protest was a solo public demonstration that took place in October 2022 on the Sitong Bridge in the Haidian district of Beijing, China. Banners were hung from the bridge structure to display political messages at a busy road crossing used by many commuters.
The protest took place on October 13, 2022, just days before the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. It stands as one of the few individual acts of public dissent openly staged in the capital in decades.
The banners hung on the bridge called for an end to COVID lockdowns and criticized Xi Jinping by name. Open political dissent of this kind is so rare in China that the event was censored almost immediately online.
The Sitong Bridge is located in the Haidian district in northwest Beijing and can be reached by public transit. It is an ordinary road bridge with no visitor facilities or points of interest on site.
The protest was carried out by a single person who identified himself as Peng Lifa and appeared to have planned the action for months. Within hours, searches for the exact wording on the banners were blocked across Chinese social media platforms.
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