Anti-government protests spread to Shanghai and Beijing as anger grows over China's strict zero-COVID policy

• Shanghai is gripped by anti-COVID-19 protests, which are also happening in Xinjiang, Beijing, and Nanjing. 
• The protests follow the death of 10 in a fire that locals claim couldn't be extinguished due to virus control barriers. 
• Earlier this week, China reported a record number of COVID-19 cases.

Anti-government protests in China are spreading amid growing opposition to the state's strict zero-COVID policies.

On Saturday, Shanghai, China's most populous city and its financial hub, became the latest flashpoint for the anger of of Chinese people.

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. City officials deny this. 

A quiet Shanghai vigil for the dead on Saturday night turned into an angry protest, the FT reports, with crowds chanting "we don't want PCR tests," and others shouting for President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist party to "step down."

The BBC reported that protesters in Shanghai were being bundled into police cars. 

—李老师不是你老师 (@whyyoutouzhele) November 26, 2022

—ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) November 26, 2022

 

Per the BBC, protests are also happening in Urumqi city, Beijing, and Nanjing, in eastern China, all cities with rising COVID-19 cases and increasing levels of restrictions. 

In China's capital, hundreds of students from Beijing's Tsinghua University protested on the campus on Sunday. They chanted, "freedom will prevail," and called for an end to lockdowns, per al-Jazeera.

Earlier this week, China reported a record number of COVID-19 cases across the country, with 31,444 new COVID cases in the country on Thursday. 

This surge in cases followed workers at the world's largest iPhone factory in  Zhengzhou clashing with police over missing wages and COVID-related concerns about living conditions.

It is rare to see such protests in China, but after almost three years of tough COVID-19 restrictions, people are starting to grow weary. 

Professor of Global History at Oxford, Peter Frankopan, said on Twitter that the COVID protests were the "most serious moment since Tiananmen in 89," when roughly one million protesters descended to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to protest government reform and corruption.

—Peter Frankopan (@peterfrankopan) November 26, 2022

 

Hundreds of protesters were killed in the 1989 movement — which is sometimes referred to as the "'89 democracy movement" — as a result of Chinese armed forces firing fired on the protesters.