"Step down, the Communist Party": Largest anti-govt protests since Tiananmen Square in China over Zero Covid Policy

Beijing, Nov 28: In worrying news around the ongoing mass anti-Covid restrictions protests across China, massive protests are raging across many cities in China amid anger over fresh restrictions imposed for the Zero Covid Policy. This wave of unrest has gripped China in the largest anti-government protests since Tiananmen Square.

 

In an unprecedented show of defiance against the zero-Covid policy, protestors are even heard chanting "Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party," according to several videos that surfaced on social media.

This large-scale protest was apparently sparked by an apartment block fire in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang province, which killed at least 10 people on Thursday and has acted as a catalyst for searing public anger.

 

 

According to media reports, much of the demonstration started as videos emerged that seemed to suggest lockdown measures delayed firefighters from reaching the victims. From the capital Beijing to the financial hub of Shanghai, people reportedly gathered to mourn the dead from the Xinjiang fire, while holding protests against zero-Covid policies.

 

By Sunday evening, on dozens of university campuses, students demonstrated or put up protest posters. Protests also spread to Chengdu, Guangzhou and Wuhan, where residents called for not only an end to Covid restrictions.

 

 

At Tsinghua University, in the capital city Beijing, students gathered on a square to protest against zero-Covid.

Videos and images circulating on social media show students holding up sheets of white paper and shouting: "Democracy and rule of law! Freedom of expression!"

 

 

Residents in locked-down neighborhoods tore down barriers and took to the streets, following mass anti-lockdown protests in Urumqi on Friday. Such widespread scenes of anger and defiance are rare in China, where the ruling Communist Party clamps down on all forms of dissent. However, the increase in COVID restrictions long detested across the country has brought matters to a head.

 

 

BBC, in a statement has claimed its journalist in China, Ed Lawrence was beaten and kicked by the police while he was being arrested. He was arrested and handcuffed while covering a similar ongoing protest in Shanghai. "During his arrest, he was beaten and kicked by the police. This happened while he was working as an accredited journalist," BBC said.

 

"We have had no official explanation or apology from the Chinese authorities, beyond a claim by the officials who later released him that they had arrested him for his own good in case he caught Covid from the crowd. We do not consider this a credible explanation," the statement added.

 

The cases have been surging in China for a long time now. It is battling a surge in infections that has prompted lockdowns and other restrictions in cities across the country as Beijing adheres to a zero-Covid-19 policy even as much of the world tries to coexist with the coronavirus.

 

Shanghai's 25 million people were put under lockdown for two months earlier this year, an ordeal that provoked anger and protest. Chinese authorities have since then sought to be more targeted in their Covid-19 curbs. But that effort has been challenged by a surge in infections as China faces its first winter with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.