He dressed as a construction worker. Orange vest, yellow helmet, the uniform of invisibility on a Beijing construction site. On the morning of October 13, 2022, three days before the opening of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, a lone figure climbed onto Sitong Bridge -- a highway overpass in Haidian district -- unfurled two banners, set fire to a pile of tires, and began chanting through a loudspeaker. The smoke was deliberate. The words were unmistakable.
The protester's chant cut through the morning traffic noise: 'Go on strike at school and work, remove dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping! We want to eat, we want freedom, we want to vote!' The two banners he had unfurled addressed Xi Jinping's cult of personality, human rights violations, censorship, and the zero-COVID policy that had locked down entire cities for months. He also published a 23-page document on the academic platform ResearchGate, calling for class and work boycotts starting October 16 -- the opening day of the Party Congress. The timing was precise: this was the event at which Xi Jinping's unprecedented third term as leader would be formally cemented.
Photos of the burning tires and hanging banners spread across social media before censors could contain them. The protester was quickly dubbed 'Bridge Man' or 'Banner Man' -- deliberate echoes of 'Tank Man,' the anonymous figure who stood before a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square in 1989. The New York Times later identified him as Peng Lifa, also known as Peng Zaizhou, believed to be a 48-year-old physics enthusiast. His identity has never been officially confirmed. He was held in enforced disappearance for over two years, and in July 2025 was reported to have been tried and sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of "arson" and "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," though his whereabouts and the details of his trial remained unconfirmed by Chinese authorities.
The Chinese government's response inadvertently amplified the protest's message about censorship. Authorities blocked the terms 'Sitong Bridge' and 'brave man' on social media platforms. Bloomberg News reported that even the words 'courage,' 'bridge,' and 'Beijing' were temporarily censored. Baidu Maps removed the bridge's location entirely. Individuals who reposted images or video of the protest were arrested. The following month, Apple released an iOS update that restricted AirDrop functionality in China -- preventing the 'Everyone' sharing mode from remaining active for more than ten minutes. Protesters had been using AirDrop to share images of the banners to nearby phones. Apple stated the change was meant to reduce unsolicited content, but Bloomberg News reported it was made at the Chinese government's request.
The BBC described Peng's act as 'one of the most significant acts of Chinese protest seen under Mr. Xi's rule.' Anti-Xi slogans inspired by the bridge protest appeared as graffiti in other Chinese cities, and solidarity demonstrations were held at universities abroad, including Stanford. Art celebrating the protest circulated online despite aggressive censorship. Media later assessed the Sitong Bridge protest as having inspired similar acts of dissent -- banner protests in Shandong in February 2023, in Xinhua County in July 2024, and at a bus station in Chengdu in April 2025. One man on a bridge, visible for perhaps thirty minutes before police arrived, produced a template for defiance that proved difficult to erase even after the bridge itself was scrubbed from online maps.
Sitong Bridge is located at approximately 39.967N, 116.321E in Beijing's Haidian district, along the North 4th Ring Road. The bridge is a standard highway overpass, not visually distinctive from altitude. It lies northwest of the Forbidden City, in the university district. Nearest airports: Beijing Daxing International (ZBAD) to the south, Beijing Capital International (ZBAA) to the northeast. The area is surrounded by the campuses of major universities including Tsinghua and Peking University.