Survivor of Mao's China warns about Big Tech working with government: 'Americans should take note'

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VA parent, survivor of Mao's revolution warns about Biden's China policies

Xi Van Fleet, a survivor of Mao's revolution, on police beating crowds protesting China lockdowns.

Xi Van Fleet, a survivor of Mao's Marxist revolution, warned Tuesday about the Chinese Communist Party and said people must take notice of rising totalitarianism since the COVID pandemic.

Chinese police roughed up citizens who gathered to protest against having their bank accounts frozen due to COVID-19 policies on Sunday, according to protesters.

"This large protest was only made possible when people could communicate and mobilize online, and they did not use WeChat, which is the Chinese Facebook, because every activity was under strict surveillance by the government," Xi told "Fox & Friends."

Protests centered on three banks serving primarily rural communities that have frozen millions of dollars in accounts since April. Roughly 1,000 protesters gathered to call for the release of their funds outside the Zhengzhou branch of the Chinese Central Bank, but they say they were met with violence.

In this photo released by Yang on Sunday, July 10, 2022, people hold banners and chant slogans stage a protest at the entrance to a branch of China's central bank in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan Province.(AP Photo/Yang) (AP)

CHINESE COPS 'BEAT' PROTESTERS OUTRAGED AT HAVING BANK ACCOUNTS FROZEN

The Chinese government is expanding its COVID-19 lockdown measures as more clusters of cases were discovered in the country's eastern region.

Officials in the city of Wuxi have closed down in-person dining and many other indoor activities. Authorities are also encouraging residents to work from home and not leave the city, according to Reuters.

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Xi said Americans should take note of the partnership between the government and China's social media companies. She said protesters may have been able to use "alternative social media, such as Telegram, to communicate and organize" and get around China's censors.

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"I think we see that the Chinese government will have a stricter crackdown on alternative social media. And so here is the example that we can see when Big Tech and the government work together to control information, people lose freedom. And Americans should take note."

Government officials touted that Shanghai was COVID-free in early June, but hundreds of thousands of residents remained in lockdown nevertheless. The Virginia mother called on Americans to watch how China has "weaponized" COVID to control its citizens. 

"China is not a normal country. It is a communist country through and through. Ever since its founding in 1949, communists do not respect private property. They do not respect human rights and human lives," she told Ainsley Earhardt. 

Fox News' Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.