Editor's note: This is the last of a two-part series on how police cracked down on participants of the "blank paper" protests against China's zero-COVID policy that broke out in November 2022.

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A young Chinese woman arrested after joining a Beijing protest against China's overly stringent zero-COVID policy left a video message before being taken away by police. 

In the message, Cao Zhixin, 26, said she didn't want to be "erased," fearing her fate at the hands of Chinese authorities. She was arrested on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. 

According to sources, at least three of her friends were also arrested on the same charges after they participated in the Nov. 27 rally, holding up blank sheets of white paper in a show of protest.

Although the four were released on bail in mid-April, police continue monitoring them and restricting their movements.

They are all women in their late 20s.

Although they hail from different parts of the country and graduated from different schools, they shared many similarities, including how they felt increasingly stifled by social mores.

In urban areas in China, rent and educational expenses have skyrocketed while competition has intensified in seeking a better life.

Meanwhile, traditional beliefs that place emphasis on marriage and birth still remain deeply rooted in society.

The four women developed doubts about Chinese society and began to feel they were being increasingly marginalized. 

For example, Li Siqi, 27, a freelance writer and one of the four arrested women, wrote an essay in June 2022 expressing how difficult it is to live an ideal life.

After studying at a graduate school in London, she returned to China in May 2021.

After moving from one part-time job to another and working as an intern, she found it uncomfortable to work with others in a workplace and thought about working as a freelance writer.

While she thought she could live a free life, she was faced with the problem of how to make ends meet.

Li joined a project to launch an online music media outlet after she was invited by an entrepreneur from a different field.

Although it wasn't a job she really aspired to do, she took a realistic attitude to earning a living.

But once the outlet was launched, she was tasked with writing stories, managing the website and finding sponsors while being backed with only a scant amount of funding.

When the website failed to reach the targeted number of views, the entrepreneur blamed her for being lazy.

Li told the entrepreneur she had no interest in such things and quit the job to work on a freelance basis again.

"Poor cultural workers like ourselves are just like stocks whose prices keep falling consistently," she writes. "I assume that investors like them want to employ us at rock-bottom prices."

Also included in Li's essay is a friend of the same age who opted for a stable job.

Zhai Dengrui was also arrested along with Li and Cao. Since she had always been interested in education, Zhai landed a job as a cram school teacher.

But she was transferred to work as a sales clerk of an online store run by the school operator after the Chinese government hammered out regulations on cram schools.

Her new job required her to livestream explanations about products for children, but she was forced to compete with her colleagues to sell exactly the same products.

Li concludes her essay with a question, "Why can't we work dignified jobs with our dignity intact?"

"What she writes about is how every young person in China is feeling stifled," said their 25-year-old male friend. 

Under such circumstances, Li and others also tried to introduce themselves to new values.

According to their friends, the four women often attended reading sessions and film-watching events held in community spaces and independent bookstores in Beijing.

These events covered various themes such as literature and art, in addition to the rights of women, LGBT and other sexual minorities, encouraging young participants to freely exchange their opinions.

But such opportunities at venues began to dwindle at a rapid pace in Beijing starting from the late 2010s, one participant said.

The administration, led by Chinese President Xi Jinping, has become increasingly wary of "foreign forces" such as the United States and European nations, accusing them of trying to promote Western values through civic activities to threaten the regime.

Even having discussions about civil rights could put people at risk.

With citizens losing opportunities to experience freedom, "I feel like I am suffocating," one of the four women often told her male friend.

Then, the government introduced the zero-COVID policy to stop novel coronavirus infections, which put strict restrictions on people's movements.

The overly restrictive measures lasted for nearly three years from spring 2020, during which citizens had no choice but to endure inconveniences.

Around the same time, in November 2022, a raging fire in an apartment building in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region killed 10 residents.

There was a widespread belief that the stringent zero-COVID measures delayed the evacuation of the residents, prompting protests in Nanjing and Shanghai.

The four women and their friends saw videos of the protests posted on social media, with some saying they should join the cause.

"Everyone was feeling worried about where society was headed," one of their friends said.

The male friend close to Zhai said that the four women who were arrested were politically neutral and had no particular interests.

"But what else can we do when we want to say something about society? All we are left with is to stage demonstrations," he said.