Hundreds protest against China’s Covid-19 clampdown

HUNDREDS of people took to the streets in Beijing and Shanghai yesterday to protest against China’s zerocovid-19 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 north-west China’s Xinjiang region – in which 10 people were killed, has become a fresh catalyst for public anger, with many blaming lengthy lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts. Authorities deny the claims.

Hundreds rallied at Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University to protest against lockdowns, one witness who wished to remain anonymous told AFP.

“At 11.30am, students started holding up signs at the entrance of the canteen, then more and more people joined. Now there are 200 to 300 people,” the witness said.

Participants sang the national anthem and “the Internationale” – a standard of the international communist movement – and chanted “freedom will prevail” and “no to lockdowns, we want freedom”, the witness said.

The witness described students holding up blank pieces of paper, a symbolic protest against censorship.

And in Shanghai yesterday afternoon, hundreds of people gathered in the megacity’s downtown to hold what appeared to be a silent protest, near where a demonstration had erupted hours earlier, a witness told AFP.

Demonstrators holding blank pieces of paper and white flowers stood silently at several intersections, the person said under condition of anonymity, before police officers eventually moved to clear the blocked roads.

The number of new infections in China hit a new daily record of 39 791 for the fourth day in a row, the Chinese National Health Commission said yesterday, adding that most cases were asymptomatic.

The country had a record 31 656 cases on Thursday, surpassed by 32 943 cases on Friday and 35 183 cases on Saturday. Prior to this spike, Covid19 cases in China peaked in midapril, when the daily increase in new infections exceeded 29 400. A total of 36 082 new daily infections had been asymptomatic, while 3 709 patients showed coronavirus symptoms, the commission said.

The largest clusters of cases were detected in China’s southern province of Guangdong, where a new quarantine facility for 80 000 patients was being set up, as well as in Beijing and the Chongqing municipality.

.Crowds had gathered hours before on Wulumuqi street, with a video showing protesters chanting “Xi Jinping, step down! CCP, step down!” in a rare display of public opposition to the Chinese Communist Party’s top leadership.

In total, 307 802 cases have been recorded in mainland China since the start of the pandemic, and 5 233 people have died.