China bank protest stopped by health codes turning red, depositors say. By Engen Tham.

A protest planned by hundreds of bank depositors in central China seeking access to their frozen funds has been thwarted because the authorities have turned their health code apps red, several depositors told Reuters. …

Rights groups have warned China could use its vast COVID surveillance infrastructure to stifle dissent. Without a green code on their smartphone app, citizens lose access to public transport and spaces such as restaurants and malls, as well as the right to travel across the country.

“They are putting digital handcuffs on us,” said a depositor from Sichuan province surnamed Chen, who declined to use his full name for fear of government retribution.

The Chinese authorities demand to know your travel plans:

Some regions in China have asked travellers to register their plans online.

A man surnamed Liu, who lives in Hubei province, found that his health code turned red on the morning of June 12 after he registered the day before to travel to Henan. Liu had planned to travel to a protest planned for Monday in the Henan provincial capital Zhengzhou … More than 200 depositors were similarly blocked when their health codes turned red, according to members of a WeChat group.

It could not be ascertained if the change in code was intended to block the protesters or for another reason, but three depositors told Reuters they knew people who had registered to travel to Henan, who were not connected to the frozen funds, whose codes did not turn red.

Would that ever happen in the West? That’s pretty obvious, sadly. Justin Trudeau almost certainly would have used it a few months ago against his truckers, if he had the power. As it is, he froze the bank accounts of truckers and their supporters, and used lies and state force against them.

By the way, there are apparently some bank runs occurring now in China, which could become a fairly big deal.