Protests in Shanghai as anger mounts over China's 'zero-Covid' lockdown policy
China's hardline virus strategy is stoking public frustration, with many growing weary of snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing campaigns.To get more
shanghai china news, you can visit citynewsservice.cn official website.
A deadly fire on Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang region, has become a fresh catalyst for public anger, with many blaming Covid lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts. Authorities deny the claims.
On Sunday night, between 300 and 400 people gathered on the banks of a river in the capital Beijing for several hours, with some shouting: "We are all Xinjiang people! Go Chinese people!"
AFP reporters at the scene described the crowd singing the national anthem and listening to speeches, while on the other side of the canal bank, a line of police cars waited. Cars honked in support as several hundred people who remained past midnight (1600 GMT) waved blank sheets of paper, symbolising censorship.
In the central megacity of Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged, multiple livestreams that were quickly censored showed crowds walking through the streets cheering and filming on their phones.
Shanghai clashes
In downtown Shanghai, AFP saw police clashing with groups of protestors, as officers tried to move people away from the site of an earlier demonstration on Wulumuqi street – named after the Mandarin for Urumqi.
Crowds that had gathered overnight -- some of whom chanted "Xi Jinping, step down! CCP, step down!" – were dispersed by morning.
But in the afternoon, hundreds rallied in the same area with blank sheets of paper and flowers to hold what appeared to be a silent protest, an eyewitness told AFP.
Social media videos from the area that appeared to be taken in the late afternoon showed the crowd chanting.
Footage from several different angles showed a man holding a bouquet of yellow flowers being dragged into a police car at one intersection as onlookers shouted.
By evening, dozens of policemen in yellow high-vis jackets formed a thick line, cordoning off the streets where the protests had taken place.
AFP saw multiple people arrested as officers told people to leave the area.
A foreigner who wished to remain anonymous told AFP he had seen a standoff as police directed a crowd away from Wulumuqi street.
"The police appeared to be looking for individuals suspected of leading the protests," he said.
"The atmosphere was very tense, but there was also excitement and energy... Protestors directed their anger at the police and the party, using the 'step down!' refrain of the last few days."
Footage of protests allegedly taken in major cities Guangzhou and Chengdu were also spreading online Sunday night, but AFP was unable to independently verify them.
