China’s lockdown protests: What you need to know about the rare mass demonstrations

Beijing
CNN
–

From Shanghai to Beijing, protests have erupted across China in a rare show of dissent against the ruling Communist Party, fueled by anger over the country’s increasingly costly zero-Covid policy.

As numbers grew in demonstrations in many major cities over the weekend, so did a range of grievances, with some calling for greater democracy and freedom.

Among the thousands of protesters, hundreds have even called for the ouster of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who for nearly three years has overseen a strategy of mass testing, brute force lockdowns, mandatory quarantines and digital tracking that has come to a screeching halt. and economic cost.

Here’s what we know.

The protests were sparked by a deadly fire last Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang. The fire killed at least 10 people and injured nine in an apartment building that led to public outrage after videos of the incident appeared to show that lockdown measures had delayed firefighters from reaching the victims.

The city had been under lockdown for more than 100 days, with residents unable to leave the region and many forced to stay indoors.

Videos showed residents of Urumqi marching towards a government building and cheering for the end of the blockade on Friday. The next morning, the local government said it would lift the lockdown in phases, but did not give a clear time frame or address the protests.

This failed to quell public anger, and protests quickly spread beyond Xinjiang, with residents in cities and universities across China also taking to the streets.

Why are protesters in China holding white papers?

The most prominent protests took place in two of China’s largest cities, the capital Beijing and the financial center Shanghai.

In Shanghai on Saturday, hundreds gathered for a candlelight vigil on Urumqi Street, named after the Xinjiang city, to mourn the victims of the fire. Many held white placards, a symbolic protest against censorship, and chanted, We need human rights, we need freedom.

Some also shouted for Xi to leave and sang The Internationale, a socialist anthem used as a call to action in demonstrations around the world for more than a century. It was also used during pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square before a brutal crackdown by the armed forces in 1989.

Listen to the protesters in China calling for Xi Jinping’s resignation

China’s zero-Covid policies have been felt particularly acutely in Shanghai, where a two-month-long lockdown earlier this year left many without access to food, medical care or other basic supplies, sowing deep public discontent.

By Sunday evening, mass demonstrations had spread to Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Wuhan, where thousands of residents demanded not only an end to Covid restrictions, but more, political freedoms. Residents in some closed neighborhoods tore down barriers and took to the streets.

Protests also took place on campuses, including the prestigious institutions of Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the Communication University of China, Nanjing.

Public protest is extremely rare in China, where the Communist Party has tightened its grip on all aspects of life, launched an all-out crackdown on dissent, wiped out much of civil society and built a surveillance state of technology. up.

The system of mass surveillance is even stricter in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government is accused of holding up to 2 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in camps where former prisoners have claimed they were physically and sexually abused.

A damning United Nations report in September described the region’s invasive surveillance network, with police databases containing hundreds of thousands of files with biometric data such as facial and eye scans.

China has repeatedly denied allegations of human rights violations in the region.

While protests do occur in China, they rarely occur on this scale, nor do they directly target the central government and the nation’s leader, said Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at Georgia State University who studies Chinese politics and media.

This is a different kind of protest than the more localized protests we’ve seen repeat over the past two decades, which tend to focus their claims and demands on local officials and on highly targeted social and economic issues, she said. . Instead, this time the protests have expanded to include more pointed expression of political grievances alongside concerns about Covid-19 lockdowns.

There have been increasing signs in recent months that the public has run out of patience with zero-Covid, after almost three years of economic difficulties and disruption in daily life.

Isolated pockets of protest erupted in October, with anti-zero-Covid slogans plastered on the walls of public bathrooms and in various Chinese cities, inspired by a placard hung by a lone protester on an overpass in Beijing just days before Xi cemented his third term. in power.

Earlier in November, larger protests took place in Guangzhou, with residents defying lockdown orders to tear down barriers and cheering as they took to the streets.

Shanghai protests on Saturday led to clashes between demonstrators and police, with arrests made in the early hours of the morning. Undeterred, the protesters returned on Sunday, where they met a more aggressive response in videos showing chaotic scenes of protesters being pushed, dragged and beaten by police.

At one point, hundreds of police officers formed a human wall to block major roads, with a loudspeaker blaring a message for protesters to leave.

The videos have since been deleted from the Chinese internet by censors.

BBC journalist Edward Lawrence was arrested in Shanghai on Sunday night, with a BBC spokesman claiming he was beaten and kicked by police while covering the protests. He has since been released.

Chinese authorities have not yet made any public statement about his arrest.

Some protests in other parts of China appear to have dispersed peacefully.

On several university campuses, students described seeing security guards covering protest signs with jackets and black paint. A video shows a university official warning students that they will pay for what they did today.

On Sunday, Beijing’s municipal government stopped blocking entrances to housing complexes under lockdown, saying they must remain clear for emergency services.

The central government has not yet responded to the protests. CNN has contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

State media have also remained silent on the demonstrations but have doubled down on zero-Covid, with one newspaper on Sunday calling it the most scientifically effective approach.