Security tightened after protests spread
People have taken to the streets in major cities and gathered at universities across China to call for an end to lockdowns
Police on Monday patrolled the scenes of weekend protests in Shanghai and Beijing after crowds there and in other cities across China demonstrated against stringent COVID-19 measures disrupting lives three years into the pandemic.
From the streets of several Chinese cities to dozens of university campuses, protesters made a show of civil disobedience unprecedented since leader Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago. During his tenure, Xi has overseen the quashing of dissent and expansion of a high-tech social surveillance system that has made protest more difficult, and riskier.
The backlash against COVID curbs is a setback for China’s efforts to eradicate the virus, which is infecting record numbers three years after it emerged in the central city of Wuhan.
The protests roiled global markets on Monday, sending oil prices lower and the dollar higher, with Chinese stocks and the yuan falling sharply.
Chinese security forces detained people on Monday at the scene of a rare demonstration in Shanghai as authorities worked to extinguish protests that flared across the country calling for political freedoms and an end to Covid lockdowns.
China on Monday reported a fifth straight daily record of new local cases of 40,052, up from 39,506 a day earlier. Mega-cities Guangzhou and Chongqing, with thousands of cases, are struggling to contain outbreaks while hundreds of infections were recorded in several cities across the country on Sunday.
Police on Monday patrolled the scenes of weekend protests in Shanghai and Beijing after crowds there and in other cities across China demonstrated against stringent Covid-19 measures disrupting lives three years into the pandemic.
There was no sign of new protests on Monday in Beijing or Shanghai, but dozens of police were in the areas where the weekend demonstrations took place.
Asked about widespread anger over China’s zero-Covid policy, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters, “What you mentioned does not reflect what actually happened.
“We believe that with the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and cooperation and support of the Chinese people, our fight against Covid-19 will be successful.”
People have taken to the streets in major cities and gathered at university campuses across China to call for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedoms, in a wave of protests not seen since pro-democracy rallies in 1989 were crushed.
Urumqi fire, the catalyst
A deadly fire last week in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang region, was the catalyst for the public anger, with many blaming Covid lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts.
Beijing on Monday accused “forces with ulterior motives” for linking the fire to Covid measures, saying local authorities had “made clear the facts and refuted this information and smears”.
In Shanghai at an area where demonstrators gathered over the weekend, AFP witnessed police leading three people away from a site, while China’s censors worked to scrub signs of the social media-driven rallies.
Protesters have notably used the rallies to call for greater political freedoms - with some even demanding the resignation of China’s President Xi Jinping, recently re-appointed to a historic third term as the country’s leader.
Large crowds gathered on Sunday in the capital Beijing and the economic hub of Shanghai, where police clashed with protesters as they tried to stop groups from converging at Wulumuqi street, named after the Mandarin for Urumqi.
Hundreds of people rallied in the same area with blank sheets of paper and flowers to hold what appeared to be a silent protest on Sunday afternoon.
BBC journo arrested
The BBC said one of its journalists had been arrested and beaten by police while covering the Shanghai protests, though China’s foreign ministry said the reporter had not identified himself as such.
A British government minister Monday denounced the Chinese police’s actions as “unacceptable” and “concerning”.
In the capital, at least 400 people gathered on the banks of a river for several hours, with some shouting: “We are all Xinjiang people! Go Chinese people!”
AFP journalists at the tense scene of the Shanghai protests Monday saw a heavy police presence, with blue fences in place along the pavements to stop further gatherings.
Protests abroad
Small-scale vigils and protests have been held in cities in Europe, Asia and North America, including London, Paris, Tokyo and Sydney, according to a Reuters tally, organised by expatriate dissidents and students. Dozens of people attended most of the protests with a few drawing more than 100, the tally showed.