On October 13, on the eve of the Party Congress in Beijing where Xi effectively coronated himself – and amid high, citywide security – a man hung large protest banners on Sitong Bridge, which passes over a major central thoroughfare, denouncing not just the country’s zero-COVID policy but also Xi’s dictatorship, censorship, personality cult, and suppression of human rights. The banners read: “We don’t want nucleic acid testing, we want food to eat; We don’t want lockdowns, we want freedom; We don’t want lies, we want dignity; We don’t want Cultural Revolution, we want reform; We don’t want [dictatorial] leaders,...