Public defiance of zero-Covid fanned by anger over deaths of 10 people in Urumqi, in China’s western Xinjiang region.
« : »Protests against China’s restrictive Covid-19 measures appeared to boil over in a number of cities on Saturday night, in displays of public defiance fanned by anger over a deadly fire in the western Xinjiang region. Many protests could not be immediately confirmed, but in Shanghai, police used pepper spray to stop around 300 demonstrators who had gathered at Middle Urumqi Road at midnight. The crowd brought flowers, candles and signs reading “Urumqi, November 24, those who died rest in peace” – to memorialise the 10 deaths caused by a fire in a block of flats in Xinjiang’s capital city Urumqi. A protester who gave only his family name, Zhao, said one of his friends was beaten by police and two others were pepper sprayed. He said police stamped on his feet as he tried to stop them from taking his friend away. He lost his shoes in the process, and left the protest barefoot. China’s zero-Covid policy is under fire, but experts not expecting big changes Zhao said the protesters shouted slogans including “[President] Xi Jinping, step down, Communist Party, step down”, “Unlock Xinjiang, unlock China”, “do not want PCR [tests], want freedom” and “press freedom”. Around 100 police stood in lines, preventing some protesters from gathering or leaving, and buses carrying more police arrived later, Zhao said. Another protester, who also gave only his family name of Xu, said there was a larger crowd of thousands of demonstrators, but police stood on the road and let them pass on the pavement. Posts about the protest were deleted immediately on China’s social media, as China’s ruling Communist Party commonly does to suppress criticism. Earlier on Saturday, authorities in Xinjiang opened up some neighbourhoods in Urumqi after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city’s draconian “zero-Covid” lockdown that had lasted more than three months. Many alleged that obstacles caused by antivirus measures made the fire worse and took emergency workers three hours to extinguish the blaze. But officials denied the allegations, saying there were no barricades in the building and that residents were permitted to leave. Some residents elsewhere in the city have had their doors chained shut, including one who spoke to Associated Press but declined to be named for fear of retribution. Many in Urumqi believe such brute-force tactics may have prevented residents from escaping in Thursday’s fire and that the official death toll was an undercount. Anger boiled over after Urumqi city officials held a press conference about the fire in which they appeared to shift responsibility for the deaths onto the block’s residents.
