Disposable counterpublics: Women, queers, and Uyghurs in the White Paper Movement

Protesting China's zero-Covid policy and intensified state control, the White Paper Movement (TWPM) is often applauded as a landmark anti-authoritarian movement. This article disrupts the claim by examining how women, queers, and Uyghurs were represented and rhetorically positioned within TWPM and their implication for an intersectional politics in China's pro-democracy activism. Through a critical reading of media coverage and digital narratives, I introduce the concept of disposable counterpublics to characterize the dynamics in which the sufferings and efforts of multiply marginalized populations and protesters are persistently subsumed into a monolithic democratic agenda. Engaging with the scholarship on transnational and networked counterpublics, this study advances the conversations by illuminating the power dynamics within (counter)publics and the digitally mediated spaces where (counter)public negotiations unfold in a transnational setting.