Protests in Shanghai as anger mounts over China’s zero-Covid policy, Early on Sunday, irate Shanghai residents rushed to the streets to demand an end to lockdowns as China deals with growing public opposition to its zero-Covid policy. A fatal fire that occurred on Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region of northwest China, sparked a social media backlash as many users accused the city’s prolonged Covid lockdowns of impeding rescue efforts.
In a video widely circulated on social media and geolocated by AFP, some protesters can be heard chanting in Wulumuqi street, which is located in the heart of Shanghai and is named after Urumqi in Mandarin “Xi Jinping, resign now! CCP, resign now! “in an unusual show of open disapproval of the government’s top officials.
Protests in Shanghai as anger mounts over China’s zero-Covid policy
Video taken by an eyewitness on Sunday showed people gathering in central Shanghai to mourn the 10 victims killed in the Urumqi fire. Other vigils took place at universities across the country, according to posts widely circulating on social media. A person who attended the Shanghai protests but asked not to be named told AFP they arrived at the rally at 2:00 am to see that “a group of people was mourning and sending flowers on the sidewalk, another group of people was chanting slogans”.
“There were minor clashes but in all, civilized law enforcement,” they added. “At last a couple of people were taken away by the police for unknown reasons.” Authorities were swift to curb online discussion of the protest, with phrases related to the visit scrubbed from the Twitter-like Weibo platform almost immediately after footage of the rallies emerged. The protests come against a backdrop of mounting public frustration over the Chinese government’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid and follow sporadic rallies in other cities.
– Lockdowns and mass testing –
China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid strategy, with authorities wielding snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing to snuff out new outbreaks as they emerge. Shanghai, a city of more than 25 million people, endured a grueling two-month lockdown earlier this year that saw widespread food shortages. A number of high-profile cases in which emergency services have been allegedly slowed down by Covid lockdowns, leading to deaths, have catalyzed public opposition to the measures.
“I’m also the one throwing myself off the roof, trapped in an overturned (quarantine) bus, breaking out of isolation at the Foxconn factory,” read one recent viral comment referencing several recent incidents blamed on zero-Covid strictures. Following the deadly Urumqi fire, hundreds of people massed outside the city’s government offices, chanting: “Lift lockdowns!”, footage partially verified by AFP shows. In another clip, dozens of people are seen marching through a neighborhood in the east of the city, shouting the same slogan before facing off with a line of hazmat-clad officials and angrily rebuking security personnel.
While AFP was able to confirm the footage by geolocating nearby locations, they were unable to pinpoint precisely when the protests took place. Following the demonstrations, authorities declared on Saturday that the city “had practically reduced social transmissions to zero” and would “restore the normal order of life for residents in low-risk areas in a staged and orderly manner.” A record number of domestic cases of Covid were reported in China on Sunday, but they were still few in comparison to the number of cases in the West at the time of the pandemic.
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