Beijing orders six million people into lockdown
China has ordered six million people into lockdown after hundreds of workers took to the streets around the vast iPhone factory in Zhengzhou on Wednesday.
Beijing's move to crush the dissent came after images of the protests went viral, and as the number of coronavirus cases in China hit an all-time high - nearly three years into the pandemic and the Chinese Communist Party's zero-Covid approach.
In a rare display of public anger, workers - furious over Covid isolation policies and working conditions - violently clashed with hazmat-clad personnel wielding batons.
In multiple videos from the city overnight, officials could be seen holding riot shields while being bombarded with heavy objects thrown by workers.
Protesters wielded huge metal poles and railings, swinging them wildly at the ghostlike figures that have become synonymous with President Xi Jinping's failing authoritarian efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19.
In the wake of the unrest, residents of eight districts of Zhengzhou, home to 6.6 million people, were told to stay home for five days beginning Thursday 'unless necessary' - to buy food or get medical treatment.
Daily mass testing was ordered in what the city government called a 'war of annihilation' against the virus. The restrictions do not cover the iPhone factory, where workers have already been under Covid restrictions for weeks.
The curbs in Zhengzhou are part of China's national zero-tolerance approach to Covid, which involves gruelling lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing.
However, nearly three years into the pandemic, Covid cases are now higher than they have ever been in China.
There were 31,444 domestic cases on Wednesday, the National Health Bureau reported, the highest since the pandemic began.