Time.news – China has strengthened the presence of law enforcement in cities to counter the return of anti-lockdown protests that marked the weekend in many Chinese localities, triggered by the victims of a fire in a residential building in Urumqi, Xinjiang. On the streets of Beijing and Shanghai, police officers and vehicles have increased, in the event of new large-scale demonstrations which, however, have not taken place.
I’m In the meantime, controls have also increased: Protesters who had taken to the streets over the weekend received calls from the police asking for information about their whereabouts over the past few days. Under particular observation is the area of Urumqi Road, in Shanghai, where the strongest protests have occurred and where slogans against President Xi Jinping rang out.
Protests against lockdowns in China
Since yesterday the area has been cordoned off, and the sign with the name of the street (Wulumuqi, in Chinese) has been removed; the bars in the area have been asked to close by 10 pm, officially for measures related to the control of Covid.
There would have been arrests in the last few hours, at least four, and one of the arrested people would have been released. Some minor demonstrations were also held, such as in Hangzhou, where an arrest would have occurred, and in Hong Kong, where Chinese University students gathered to remember the victims of the Urumqi fire, linked to anti-Covid policies. The protesters are calling for an end to the lockdowns and mass swabs, or rather the end of the rigid zero Covid policy in force in the country.
The most widespread protests in China in recent decades are under observation by the international community, starting with the US president, Joe Biden, and the United Nations who yesterday urged Beijing to respect the right of protesters to peacefully protest with white papers, have become the symbol.
Meanwhile, the state media are silent on the protests, and while defending the zero Covid line contested by the protesters, try to tone it down: an editorial by the Xinhua agency acknowledges that the pandemic has had an impact on citizens’ lives and underlines that “all localities and departments need to be more patient and ease people’s emotions.”