Chinese took to the streets in major cities and gathered on university campuses across the country in a wave of nationwide protests unheard of since the pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989. Xinjiang has been the catalyst for anger, with many blaming lockdowns due to the pandemic for hindering rescue efforts. Beijing accused “troops with ulterior motives” of linking the fire to measures against the covid.
In an area of Shanghai’s economic center where protesters had gathered over the weekend, AFP witnessed the evacuation of three people by police. China’s online censorship machine also worked to erase signs of social media-driven gatherings. A planned protest in Beijing on Monday came to nothing when several dozen police and vans blocked an intersection near the meeting point.
In Hong Kong, where democratic protests erupted in 2019, dozens of people gathered at the Chinese University to honor the victims of the fire in Urumqi and the region’s financial hub. In Hangzhou, just over 100 miles southwest of Shanghai, tight security regulations allowed only sporadic protests in the city center.
Protesters used the protests to call for more freedoms, with some demanding the resignation of Xi Jinping, recently reappointed to a third term as communist leader. Large crowds gathered in Beijing and Shanghai on Sunday, where police clashed with protesters as they tried to prevent groups from congregating on Wulumuqi Street, the Mandarin name for Urumqi.
A protester told AFP she and five of her friends who attended the protest in Beijing received calls from police asking for information about their movements on Monday night.
“No one should be arbitrarily detained for peacefully expressing their views.”
The BBC said one of its journalists was arrested and beaten by police while covering the protests in Shanghai, though China’s foreign ministry insisted the reporter did not identify himself as such. British minister Grant Shapps called the acts of violence “unacceptable and worrying”. “Press freedom must be sacred,” he said.
The unrest prompted the United Nations on Monday to call on China to respect the right to demonstrate. “No one should be arbitrarily detained for expressing their views peacefully,” said Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he showed “understanding” for the protesters and urged authorities to respect citizens’ rights. A similar message came from the US State Department, commenting: “We think it will be very difficult for the People’s Republic of China to contain this virus through its zero covid strategy.”
Eight months of struggle
There has been months of discontent over the country’s ‘zero covid’ policy, with brutal mass testing, local confinement and travel restrictions pushing many across the country to their limits. Those frustrations spilled onto the streets of some of China’s largest cities, with protesters calling for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedom.
Shanghai
A strict lockdown in Shanghai, which began in late March, brought the first visible glimpses of dissent over Covid restrictions. The measures have led to sporadic protests and food shortages, both almost unheard of in China’s wealthiest metropolis.
In April, a six-minute video montage featuring the sounds of desperate residents went viral in China before being censored. Social media users posted the video in multiple formats to escape censorship, in the biggest wave of online protests since Doctor Li Wenliang died in February 2020 after denouncing the outbreak in Wuhan.
Beijing
In May, hundreds of students protested on a campus of elite Peking University against strict lockdown measures that allowed staff more freedom of movement than students. The rare outcry was later defused after officials agreed to relax some restrictions. Campuses across China have been virtually on lockdown during the pandemic, excluding visitors and making it difficult for students to return home.
Zhengzhou
After multiple rural banks in Henan province froze deposits, hundreds of depositors gathered in the provincial capital Zhengzhou from May to July to protest. Some protesters reported that their covid health codes inexplicably turned red upon arrival in the city, preventing them from traveling, and accused officials of tampering with the system. Health codes are used in contact tracing and linked to identification documents.
Lhasa
In October, hundreds of people organized a rare and heavily guarded demonstration in Lhasa, Tibet, against a harsh confinement that had lasted for nearly three months. The videos showed hundreds of people, who appeared to be mostly ethnic Han Chinese migrant workers, marching through the streets of the Tibetan capital demanding to return home.
Beijing
That same month, a few days before the Communist Party Congress, two banners were hung from the side of a bridge in Beijing. “No covid testing, I want to make a living. No Cultural Revolution, I want reforms. No confinement, I want freedom. No leaders, I want to vote. No lies, I want dignity. I will not be a slave, I will be a be a citizen,” read one of the banners. The other banner called on citizens to attack and overthrow “the traitorous dictator Xi Jinping”.
guangzhou
In November, protesters from the metropolis in the south clashed with police after confinement was extended due to an outbreak of infections. Hundreds of people took to the streets and some ripped cords to prevent residents from leaving their homes. “Tests are over,” the protesters chanted.
Zhengzhou and Urumqi
Hundreds of workers and police officers staged violent protests at the world’s largest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, which has been shut down since October. In Xinjiang’s regional capital of Urumqi, residents called for an end to restrictions imposed in the region over the past three months, with demonstrations outside the municipal building. The protests came after a fire that killed 10 people in a block of flats, with allegations that confinement measures prevented residents from leaving the houses on time and delayed firefighters’ entry. The protests sparked a wave of unrest and vigils in other Chinese cities and campuses.
Source: DN
