11月最後の週末、中国全土で白紙の紙を掲げて抗議する若者達の姿が世界中のソーシャルメディアで拡散され＝go viral/circulate online、白紙革命と呼ばれました。
➣Chinese Protesters were seen holding up blank sheets of white paper, leading some to dub the protests the “white paper revolution” or the “A4 revolution” for the size of the standard sheet.
世界がwithコロナ対応をする中、中国が事実上の自宅軟禁のような厳しい「ゼロコロナ」政策にこだわった事が引き金です。
➣China is adhering to its tough zero-COVID policy even while much of the world try to coexist with the coronavirus.
➣Most people in the weekend protests focused their anger on rigid pandemic lockdowns, a form of virtual house arrest that can last for months and has been criticized as neither scientific nor effective.
➣Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his draconian "zero COVID" program.
※adhere to 固執する
※virtual house arrest 事実上の自宅軟禁
※draconian 厳格な（古代アテネの執政官ドラコンのように）過酷な
1989年の天安門事件以来の規模の市民不服従です。
➣Protests have broken out across China in what some are calling the greatest display of civil disobedience since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
スローガンが書かれていない白紙は、参加者は検閲から身を守る戦略です。
➣The sheets of paper have largely come to be used as a symbol of defiance against the Chinese state’s strict censorship, while also serving as a practical method for evading censorship itself.
➣It is a tactic used in part to dodge censorship or arrest.
※evade=巧みに避ける、かわす、回避する ➾dodgeひらりと体をかわす ドッジボールのドッジ
ある学生の声
“The white paper represents everything we want to say but cannot say,” one young protester told Reuters.
習近平の母校＝alma mater清華大学では、宇宙の法則を示した「フリードマン方程式」を掲げる学生もいました。
➣At Tsinghua University, some students were seen holding pieces of paper with Friedmann equations scrawled on them, in which the Russian physicist and mathematician explains how the universe evolves over time. The use of the equation is understood to be a play on the words "Free man".
※scrawlなぐり書きをする
※physicist物理学者
※mathematician数学者
「共産党下台！(共産党辞めろ！)」「習近平下台！(習近平辞任しろ！)」といったスローガンも聞かれました
➣Even as some protesters in China have chosen the quieter route of the white papers, others have taken a more outspoken approach, calling on Chinese President Xi Jinping and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to leave power. “Xi Jinping! Step down! CCP! Step down!” protesters chanted on Sunday. That is deemed seditious and punishable by years in prison.
※outspokenはっきりものをいう
※seditious治安妨害の、煽動的な sedition 扇動罪、煽動的言動、騒乱罪
シー・ジン・ピン、シャータイ（「習近平辞任せよ」）を、音が似ているものに置き換える皮肉のダジャレもありました。
➣Social media users also turned to advanced wordplay（だじゃれ） to discuss the protests, using terms like “banana peel,”（バナナの皮） which has the same initials as President Xi Jinping’s name in Chinese, and “shrimp moss,” （エビの苔）which sounds similar to the phrase “step down.”
その直後、中国はゼロコロナ政策を突然終了させました。正確な数字の発表はありませんが患者数、死亡者数は急増の模様。
➣China suddenly abandoned its zero-COVID strategy.
見出し：China’s pandemic U-turn ※U-turn 〔政策などの〕180度転換➾about-face 回れ右、完全な転換
➣Hospitals have been overrun with mostly elderly COVID-19 patients since strict antivirus restrictions were dropped in December.
出口政策がないまま、春節を海外で過ごそうとする中国人対応に、世界中が追われています。
➣China lacks a 'zero COVID' exit strategy. The rest of the world is scrambling to respond.
※scramble 慌てて～する、奮闘する
