Workers clashed with police at a Covid test kit factory in China, according to a video shared on social media on Sunday, as the country seeks to exit its hardline “zero Covid” policy.
Boxes thrown at police
Geotagged AFP images of an industrial park in the southwestern city of Chongqing show people throwing boxes at a group of uniformed men, sending what appears to be test kits flying.
In another sequence, a crowd can be seen in front of a line of police officers at night as loudspeakers play a warning asking them to “cease your illegal activities.”
A man who posted video of the scene captioned that many workers had not been paid.
According to other publications, the Chongqing-based pharmaceutical company Zybio suddenly laid off workers who had been hired in recent weeks.
“Economic claims”?
Zybio did not immediately respond to calls from AFP, while the local police department declined to comment.
“All the demands of the workers are economic in nature,” a man who calls himself a “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist” says in a video. He insisted that there was no political motive behind the protest.
AFP could not specify the exact moment the videos were recorded, but testimonies posted on social networks ensure that the confrontation occurred on the night of Saturday to Sunday.
Brown and white industrial buildings with distinct patterns can be seen in the background of the videos, matching earlier footage of Zybio’s facility in Dadukou District’s Jianqiao Industrial Park.
A hashtag in relation to the censored mobilization?
The hashtag “Chongqing Dadukou Pharmaceutical Factory” appeared censored on the popular social network Weibo on Sunday, with only a post from the previous day still visible describing the protest as an “interesting topic.”
China is seeing a surge in covid-19 cases as the government backtracked on its zero-tolerance strategy for the virus, prompting a surge in demand for test kits and medicines.
Authorities last month restarted production lines at more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies, while some companies hired staff to meet increased demand.
Source: BFM TV
