Students sent home in China
CHINESE universities have sent students home and police fanned out in Beijing and Shanghai after crowds angered by Covid restrictions called for President Xi Jinping to resign in the biggest show of public dissent in decades.
Authorities have eased some controls after demonstrations in at least eight mainland cities and Hong Kong – but showed no sign of backing off their larger zero-Covid strategy which has confined millions of people to their homes for months at a time.
Security forces have detained an unknown number of people and stepped up surveillance.
The widespread demonstrations were unprecedented since the army crushed the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement centred on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.