Last October, China's president Xi Jinping was confirmed for five more years as leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Just days before his confirmation, a protester hung two anti-government banners across a Beijing bridge.

The person believed to be responsible disappeared, which led to protests throughout China and eventually around the world, including here in the U.S.

LA Times China correspondent Stephanie Yang has written about a group of protesters in Boston and joined Lisa McRee from Taipei. 

The man who hung the anti-government banner over the bridge became known as "Bridge Man."

The banners called for workers to strike and overthrow President Jinping and also declared dissatisfaction with China's "zero COVID" policies. His demonstration wasn't the only protest in China. 

"There was another major protest in November that was spurred by an apartment fire in Urumqi that killed about a dozen people. And that really galvanized a lot of people overseas as well, and started leading to what we saw as a lot of solidarity protests happening. Both within China, a lot of people gathered in different cities, and then overseas," Yang said.

One of those cities was Boston, where a group of protestors were brought together by Bridge Man's banners.

The group demonstrated there, but kept their identities secret, even from each other, to protect themselves against Chinese government retaliation.

"Even though they are in the U.S., and they're familiar with protests ... a lot of them haven't really touched Chinese politics before. That's because there are several risks to them. One is that their relatives back home or friends or family could face pressure from Chinese officials or the government if they were to speak out publicly. The other is the unofficial risk in that there are lots of very extreme Chinese nationalists who are willing to report people who criticize the Chinese Communist Party," Yang explained. 

Yang shared that there has been no word from Bridge Man or any of the detained protestors from Shanghai's November demonstrations. 

Watch the full interview above.

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