Protests escalated into clashes with police in China
2022.11.27 11:45
Protests escalated into clashes with police in China
Budrigannews.com – As protests over China’s stringent COVID restrictions erupted for a third day and spread to several cities following a fatal apartment fire in the country’s far west, hundreds of demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday night.
As dissatisfaction grows with President Xi Jinping’s signature zero-COVID policy nearly three years into the pandemic, a wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China.The COVID measures are also having a significant impact on the second-largest economy in the world.
“I’m here because I love my country, but I don’t love my government. I want to be able to go anywhere I want, but I can’t.”Shaun Xiao, a protester in the financial center, stated, “Our COVID-19 policy is a game that is not based on science or reality.”
On Sunday, protesters also took to the streets of Wuhan and Chengdu.Small gatherings held peaceful vigils in Beijing, and over the weekend, students from numerous Chinese university campuses demonstrated.
Protests erupted after social media videos of the incident led to accusations that lockdowns were a factor in the blaze that killed ten people on Thursday in a residential high-rise building in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region.
In an abrupt press conference early on Saturday, officials from Urumqi denied that COVID measures had hindered escape and rescue efforts.Some of the country’s longest lockdowns have prevented many of the 4 million people living in Urumqi from leaving their homes for up to 100 days.
Wulumuqi Road, which is named after Urumqi and where a candlelight vigil the day before turned into protests, saw heavy police presence on Sunday in Shanghai.
“All we want is our fundamental human rights.Without a test, we cannot leave our homes.Due to the sensitive nature of the situation, a 26-year-old protester in Shanghai said, “It was the accident in Xinjiang that pushed people too far.”
“The people here aren’t violent, but the police are taking them away without a good reason.They attempted to grab me, but the people around me firmly grasped my arms and pulled me back, allowing me to escape.
Hundreds of people had congregated in the area by Sunday evening.As the police attempted to disperse them, some jostled.In protest, individuals held up blank sheets of paper.
Witnesses reported by Reuters saw police escorting people onto a bus, which was later driven through the crowd with a few dozen passengers.
The Shanghai vigil for the apartment fire victims turned into a protest against COVID curbs on Saturday, with the crowd chanting for lockdowns to be lifted.
Witnesses and social media videos show a large group chanting “Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping” early on Sunday in a rare public protest against the country’s leadership.
Thursday’s fire in Urumqi was trailed by swarms there taking to the road on Friday night, reciting “End the lockdown!”as well as raising their fists in the air, according to unverified social media videos.
According to social media videos, a large crowd gathered on Sunday in Chengdu, a city in the southwest, where they also held up blank sheets of paper and chanted,We don’t want rulers who rule forever.”We don’t want emperors,” Xi said, referring to the fact that he has abolished presidential term limits.
Social media videos showed hundreds of people in Wuhan, the central city where the pandemic first broke out three years ago, storming the streets, toppling COVID testing tents, and calling for an end to lockdowns.
Posts on social media showed that residents of Lanzhou in the northwest overturned COVID staff tents and smashed testing booths on Saturday, demonstrating public opposition. Despite the fact that no one had tested positive, protesters claimed they were placed under lockdown.
Images and videos shared on social media show that on Sunday, dozens of people peacefully demonstrated against COVID restrictions at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University, singing the national anthem.
Late on Sunday, two seemingly unplanned demonstrations broke out in Beijing’s Chaoyang district.
At least one hundred people held white paper in their hands.At another, people chanted “We don’t want masks, we want freedom,” among other things.Freedom, not covid tests, is what we want.
“Despite the fact that most of the world has lifted most restrictions, China has maintained Xi’s zero-COVID policy.Even though China’s case numbers are low by global standards, they have been at record highs for days. On Saturday, nearly 40,000 new infections were reported, which led to yet more lockdowns in cities across the country.
Beijing has argued that the policy is necessary to avoid overburdening the healthcare system and will save lives.Officials have pledged to carry it out.
Chinese authorities have attempted to be more targeted in their COVID prevention efforts ever since the 25 million people who live in Shanghai were placed under a lockdown for two months earlier this year. This effort has been hampered by an increase in infections as the country prepares for its first winter with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
In China, where dissent has been virtually eradicated under Xi, widespread public protest is uncommon. Instead, citizens are forced to express their dissatisfaction on social media, where they play cat-and-mouse with censors.
Just over a month after Xi won a third term as head of the Chinese Communist Party, frustration is at an all-time high.
The party will feel a lot of pressure to respond as a result of this.According to Dan Mattingly, an assistant professor of political science at Yale University, “they will arrest and prosecute some protesters” as one response.
But, he said, the upheaval is far from what it was in 1989, when the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square was the culmination of protests.
He went on to say that Xi would not be seriously threatened as long as the military and elite of China were on his side.
Ma Xingrui, secretary of the Xinjiang Communist Party, made a call this past weekend for the region to improve security and lessen the “illegal violent rejection of COVID-prevention measures.”
