Beijing, Nov 28 (UiTV/IANS) – Chinese Presdeint Xi Jinping on Monday faced unprecedented dissent after thousands of demonstrators protested in cities across the country over the weekend against his zero-Covid strategy, with some daring to openly call for his removal in the streets.
“Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party,” some protesters yelled among hundreds who gathered in the financial hub Shanghai, one of multiple major cities where protests broke out following a deadly fire on November 24 at an apartment block in the far western region of Xinjiang, reports CNN.
The fire appeared to act as a catalyst for searing public anger over China’s strict zero-Covid measures after videos emerged that seemed to suggest lockdown measures delayed firefighters from reaching the victims.
From Shanghai to the capital Beijing, residents gathered to grieve the 10 people killed in the blaze in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, speak out against zero-Covid and call for freedom and democracy. On dozens of university campuses, students demonstrated or put up protest posters.
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In many parts of the country, residents in locked-down neighbourhoods tore down barriers and took to the streets, following mass anti-lockdown protests that swept Urumqi on Friday night.
Such widespread scenes of anger and defiance, some of which stretched into the early hours of Monday morning, are exceptionally rare in China, where the ruling Communist Party ruthlessly cracks down on all expressions of dissent, CNN reported.
But three years into the pandemic, many people have been pushed to the brink by the government’s incessant use of lockdowns, Covid tests and quarantines, as well as ever-tightening censorship and continued onslaught on personal freedoms.
The ratcheting-up of restrictions in recent months, coupled with a series of deaths blamed on an over-zealous policing of the controls, has brought matters to a head.
Chinese stock markets and the yuan tumbled in early trade Monday amid concern about the government’s potential response to the protests, which varied from city to city and in some areas became more heavy-handed as the weekend progressed, CNN reported.
Though the protests made headlines in international media, Chinese state media carried stories and opinion pieces stressing the severity of the Covid outbreak and the need to persevere with methods to stamp it out.
Clashes in Shanghai as protests over China’s zero-Covid policy continue
Hundreds of demonstrators and police have clashed in Shanghai as protests over Chinas stringent Covid restrictions continued for a third day and spread to several cities, in the biggest test for President Xi Jinping since he secured a historic third term in power.
The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China in the past decade, as frustration mounts over Xi’s signature zero-Covid policy nearly three years into the pandemic, the Guardian reported.
Protests triggered by a deadly apartment fire in the far west of the country last week took place on Sunday in cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Guangzhou.
On Monday, China reported a new daily record of new Covid-19 infections, with 40,347 cases.
The cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing, with thousands of cases, are struggling to contain outbreaks. Hundreds of infections were also recorded in several other cities across the country, The Guardian reported.
Chinese stocks fell sharply as investors raised concerns over the impact of the protests on the world’s second-largest economy.
In the early hours of Monday in Beijing, two groups of protesters totalling at least 1,000 people were gathered along the Chinese capital’s 3rd Ring Road near the Liangma River, refusing to disperse.
On Sunday in Shanghai, police kept a heavy presence on Wulumuqi Road, which is named after Urumqi, and where a candlelight vigil the day before turned into protests.
“We just want our basic human rights. We can’t leave our homes without getting a test. It was the accident in Xinjiang that pushed people too far,” said a 26-year-old protester in Shanghai.
“The people here aren’t violent, but the police are arresting them for no reason. They tried to grab me but the people all around me grabbed my arms so hard and pulled me back so I could escape.”
By Sunday evening, hundreds of people gathered in the area.
Some jostled with police trying to disperse them. People held up blank sheets of paper as an expression of protest, The Guardian reported.
On Saturday, people in Shanghai had chanted “No PCR tests, we want freedom!” followed by rounds of repeated calls for “Freedom! Freedom”.
