Protests against China's harsh COVID-19 restrictions in cities like Shanghai and Beijing erupted over the weekend. The protests follow 10 people dying in an apartment fire in Urumqi city, Xinjiang, which locals allege couldn't be extinguished as a result of virus control barriers. The demonstrations against the Chinese government mark the country's biggest protest since Tiananmen Square in 1989, but many say this year's protests were a long time coming.
Over the weekend, students gathered on university campuses in protest. In the streets of Beijing, people shouted, "No to COVID tests, yes to freedom." Crowds of people lifted white, unmarked pieces of paper above their heads, protesting against the zero-COVID policies that have defined so much of everyday life in China for the past three years.
Unlike many other countries, China has continued to pursue a strategy that aims to completely eliminate COVID-19, including strict entry requirements and shutting down cities with populations in their millions when just a few cases are discovered. The policy has resulted in rare mass protests across the country.
Protests erupted in the Xinjiang region of China against strict COVID-19 lockdowns. The fury has been exacerbated by ten people dying in an apartment block fire on Friday in Urumqi with locals alleging the fire brigade was blocked by COVID-19 measures.
Videos on social media appeared to show hundreds of workers clashing with security guards at Apple's biggest iPhone-making factory in China, as discontent erupted over draconian COVID-19 measures at the plant. Zhengzhou, a city in east-central China, would be largely locked down from Friday until Tuesday amid a surge of COVID-19 infections.
Protestors are flooding streets across China — the largest protests since 1989's Tiananmen Square demonstrations — demanding relief from the country's restrictive zero-COVID lockdowns, and public-health experts agree with them.
