PROTESTS ACROSS CHINA AS ANGER MOUNTS OVER ZERO-COVID POLICY
Reports said the crowds in Shanghai demanded the resignation of President Xi Jinping over controversial policy to curb Covid
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Beijing and Shanghai on Sunday to protest against China’s zeroCovid policy in a rare outpouring of public anger against the state.
China’s hardline virus strategy is stoking public frustration, with many growing weary of snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing campaigns.
A deadly fire on Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang region, has become a fresh catalyst for public anger, with many blaming lengthy Covid lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts. Authorities deny the claims.
Hundreds rallied at Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University to protest against lockdowns on Sunday.
HUNDREDS RALLIED AT BEIJING’S ELITE TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY TO PROTEST AGAINST LOCKDOWNS ON SUNDAY.
A blank sheet of white paper has become the unlikely symbol of defiance against the Chinese government’s controversial anti-Covid curbs with protests spreading to cities far and wide including to capital Beijing and the financial hub of Shanghai.
The unprecedented outpouring of anger was partly sparked by a deadly fire that claimed the lives of at least 10 persons allegedly locked up in a Covid-controlled high-rise in northwest China’s Urumqi city on Saturday.
Widespread protests against the “zero Covid” policy were also reported from university campuses across China, most notably from Beijing’s elite Tsinghua university and the city of Nanjing’s Communication university.
At both places large numbers of students stepped out of their classes and dormitories, holding up sheets of white paper, mourning those who died in the fire and, in some cases, demanding democracy and rule of law.
Many students quietly held up blank, white sheets of paper in protest.
At the Beijing Film Academy, students had displayed surgical masks with splashes of red paint on them, a photo on Twitter showed.
An unverified list comprising the names of universities circulating on Twitter said protests were reported from at least 50 campuses from across the country. The list included universities from the city of Tianjin, located close to Beijing, and Harbin university in northeast China.
Protests against China’s hard Covid-19 curbs spread to more cities, including in the financial hub Shanghai since late Saturday where residents poured out on to streets, demanding curbs be lifted.
Residents in Shanghai, China’s most populous city, gathered quietly on Saturday night at the city’s Wulumuqi Road - which is named after Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang - for a candlelight vigil.
The vigil gradually turned into a protest meet by the early hours of Sunday as more people joined, demanding the complete opening up of locked down areas of the city, and justice for the Urumqi victims. Residents lit lamps on the sidewalk in memory of the Urumqi fire victims.
Reports said the crowds demanded the resignation of President Xi Jinping.
“People could be heard shouting demands for China’s leader Xi Jinping and the Communist Party to “step down”. The crowd also chanted, “Don’t want Covid test, want freedom!” and “Don’t want dictatorship, want democracy,” CNN said in a report from the city.
On China’s all-purpose WeChat app, users wrote chain letters opposing Covid curbs and demanding the lifting of community lockdowns.
Many WeChat users on Sunday posted photographs from the Argentina-Mexico World Cup match, mentioning the number of people who watched at Lusail stadium in Qatar, over 88,000, a record. It was a subtle hint to make the point about lockdowns, restrictions in China.
In Beijing, residents of some communities pushed back against local authorities imposing restrictions in and around their complexes, arguing that sealing areas run contrary to the government’s announcements earlier this month for more targeted controls.
The government is yet to issue any statement on the protests and official Chinese media has blanked out any mention of the demonstrations.
Covid caseload goes up
China on Sunday reported its fourth straight daily record of 39,791 new Covid-19 infections for Saturday, of which 3,709 were symptomatic and 36,082 were asymptomatic, the national health commission said in its daily bulletin.
Cases rose sharply compared to Friday when China reported 35,183 new cases - 3,474 symptomatic and 31,709 asymptomatic infections.
One death was reported from the southwestern city of Chongqing.
Beijing’s Covid-19 caseload went up sharply as well for Saturday.
The city reported 4,307 new local infections on Sunday for Saturday including 3,560 people without symptoms.