Police on patrol as Xi curbs Covid lockdown uprisings

CHINESE universities have sent students home and police fanned out in Beijing and Shanghai to prevent more protests after crowds angered by anti-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.

With police out in force, there was no sign of protests yesterday in Beijing, Shanghai or other major mainland cities that saw crowds rally over the weekend.

The widespread demonstrations were unprecedented since the army crushed the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement centred on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

A far smaller group gathered at a university in Hong Kong to protest over restrictions.

Beijing’s Tsinghua University, where students rallied over the weekend, and other schools in the capital and the southern province of Guangdong, said they were protecting students from Covid-19 by sending them home.

Dispersing them to far-flung home towns also reduces the likelihood of more demonstrations. Chinese leaders are especially wary of universities, which have been hotbeds of activism including the Tiananmen protests.

On Sunday, Tsinghua students were told they could go home early for the term and that the university would arrange buses to take them to the railway station or airport.

Nine student dormitories at Tsinghua were closed on Monday after some students tested positive for Covid-19, according to one, who noted the closure would make it hard for crowds to gather in the future.