A Chinese veteran staged a protest over his treatment Thursday evening by holding up a banner in a major shopping district in Beijing, according to images posted on the social media platform X, with police vehicles and ambulances mobilized to the scene.
The veteran, clad in a military uniform, unfurled the banner from the rooftop of a building in the Wangfujing area, accusing a district office in Kunming city, Yunnan Province, of "smothering a retired soldier who had served for 12 years." The Chinese People's Liberation Army marked its 97th founding anniversary on Thursday.
A video posted on the X platform showed the area was cordoned off, causing ripples among pedestrians.
Retired soldiers have faced difficulty in finding new jobs amid a slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy, prompting a decision by the ruling Communist Party at a key meeting last month to offer support for them to secure employment.
The incident followed the posting of footage on the X platform earlier this week in the central Chinese province of Hunan that showed a banner hung from a pedestrian bridge calling for a democratic government.
The banner in the video shared on Tuesday sought equality, freedom, reforms and elections, while a loudspeaker blared calls for the ouster of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and urged workers to go on strike and students to boycott classes.
Shortly before the start of the Chinese Communist Party's twice-a-decade congress in October 2022, banners criticizing Xi and calling for freedom were displayed at a pedestrian bridge in Beijing. During the congress, Xi secured a norm-breaking third five-year term as general secretary.
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