Chinese police detained two people this Monday in Shanghai, where protesters over the weekend protested health restrictions in response to Covid-19 and demanded more freedoms.
An agent told the France-Presse news agency (AFP) that one of the two people had “failed to follow police orders”, and passed on full details of the arrests to local authorities.
According to an AFP reporter, the officers also removed other people from the crime scene and ordered images removed from their mobile phones.
On Sunday, several people protested against China’s strict “zero-covid” policy, which has been in place for nearly three years, as well as demanding more political freedom.
There were clashes with the police and many people have been arrested, the AFP reported, which said it had not yet received a response from Shanghai police on the number of arrests made on Sunday.
The streets were closed on Sunday evening after the protests and reopened this morning (local time) with a reduced police presence, but with blue fences along the sidewalks to prevent further crowds.
In response to calls on social media, protesters took to the streets on Sunday in several Chinese cities besides Shanghai, such as Beijing, Nanjing and Urumqi, to protest measures to prevent and control Covid-19.
Anti-government slogans were heard at the protests, in a rare demonstration of hostility to the regime and the strict ‘zero covid’ policy in place since the pandemic began in 2020.
Under that policy, China enforces the blockade of entire neighborhoods or cities, conducts constant mass testing, and isolates all positive cases and their direct contacts in designated facilities, often in degrading conditions.
Source: DN
