From Shanghai to Beijing, protests have erupted across China. The widespread demonstrations against the ruling Communist Party were sparked by anger over the country’s increasingly zero-COVID policy.
Beijing
About 2,000 students at Xi’s alma mater, Tsinghua University in Beijing, gathered to demand an easing of covid-related curbs, according to posts on social media.
Students are rising up at Tsinghua University, Beijing, one of the most prestigious college in China, chanting pro-freedom slogans pic.twitter.com/GZceiz2alw
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 27, 2022
Students shouted “freedom of speech!” and sang the Internationale, the socialist anthem, AFP reported.
Shanghai
On Saturday, the vigil in Shanghai for victims of the apartment fire turned into a protest against COVID curbs, with the crowd chanting calls for lockdowns to be lifted.
Breaking News：Chinese Protestors in Shanghai chanting “Xi Jinping, step down！Communist Party, step down！”
This is huge!
pic.twitter.com/mn1AeaN2EV— Inty (@__Inty__) November 26, 2022
“Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping”, one large group chanted in the early hours of Sunday.
Urumqi
In several videos, people in Urumqui are seen confronting officials and shouting “end the Covid lockdown.”
Breaking: Overseas #Uyghur activists have confirmed that protests are indeed taking place in #Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, with people demanding authorities to end the strict lockdown that has been happening for more than 100 days across the region. https://t.co/xjbWyHNvY5
— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) November 25, 2022
Why are Chinese people protesting?
In September, a bus carrying people to a Guizhou quarantine centre at night crashed, killing 27 people.
Last month in Zhengzhou thousands of workers in an Apple iPhone factory clashed with riot police and tore down barricades due to Covid restrictions. Across locked-down cities, residents also shared rumours and reports of suicides and other deaths they linked to the enforcement of zero-Covid, the Guardian reported.
Then last week at least 10 people were killed in a building fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, which had been under lockdown for about 100 days.