LAST UPDATE | 27 Nov 2022

HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE  took to the streets in China’s major cities today to protest against the country’s zero-Covid policy in a rare outpouring of public anger against the state.

China’s hardline virus strategy is stoking public frustration, with many growing weary of snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing campaigns.

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.

Between 300 and 400 people gathered on the banks of a river in the capital Beijing for several hours today, 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 last night – 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 today, but AFP was unable to independently verify them.

University vigils

Other vigils took place overnight at universities across China, including one at the elite Peking University, an undergraduate participant told AFP.

Speaking anonymously for fear of repercussions, he said some anti-Covid slogans had been graffitied on a wall in the university, with some words echoing those written on a banner that was hung over a Beijing bridge just before the Communist Party Congress in October.

People had started gathering from around midnight local time, but he hadn’t dared join initially.

“When I arrived (two hours later), I think there were at least 100 people there, maybe 200,” he said.

“At first, they sang the ‘Internationale’. Later, some students started shouting slogans, but the reaction wasn’t particularly loud. People weren’t really sure what they should shout. But I heard people yelling: ‘No to Covid tests, yes to freedom!’”

Photos and videos he showed AFP corroborated his account.

The students were communicating with security guards and teachers, he said, but it is unclear if they faced punishment for taking part.

The graffiti had already been covered up when he arrived.

Videos on social media also showed a mass vigil at Nanjing Institute of Communications, with people holding lights and white sheets of paper.

Hashtags relating to the protest were censored on Weibo, and video platforms Duoyin and Kuaishou were scrubbed of any videos.

Videos from Xi’an, Guangzhou and Wuhan also spread on social media, showing similar small protests. AFP was unable to verify the footage independently.

Record cases 

China reported 39,506 domestic Covid cases today, a record high but small compared to caseloads in the West at the height of the pandemic.

The protests come against a backdrop of mounting public frustration over China’s zero-tolerance approach to the virus and follow sporadic rallies in other cities recently.

A number of high-profile cases in which emergency services have been allegedly slowed down by Covid lockdowns, leading to deaths, have catalysed public opposition.

Following the deadly Urumqi fire, hundreds of people massed outside the city’s government offices, chanting: “Lift lockdowns!”, footage partially verified by AFP shows.

In another clip, dozens of people are seen marching through a neighbourhood in the east of the city, shouting the same slogan before facing off with a line of hazmat-clad officials and angrily rebuking security personnel.

AFP was able to verify the videos by geolocating local landmarks but was unable to specify exactly when the protests occurred.

Urumqi officials said yesterday the city “had basically reduced social transmissions to zero” and would “restore the normal order of life for residents in low-risk areas in a staged and orderly manner”.

© AFP 2022