Protests are held in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chongqing and other major cities of China against the zero-tolerance policy followed by the authorities against the coronavirus. Thousands took to the streets to protest the tight restrictions. Clashes between the protesters and the police have already been recorded, people being loaded onto rice wagons. The first protests began on Friday, November 25.
The demonstrators chanted “Xi Jinping, go!” and “Communist Party, go”. They also light candles and leave flowers in memory of those who died in the fire in Urumqi.
As mentioned BBCSuch violent protests are not typical in China, where any direct criticism of the government and leader can lead to harsh penalties.
The AP agency reported that police used pepper spray against protesters, and there are also complaints of beatings.
Photos and videos showing students protesting at Beijing and Nanjing universities have surfaced online. Hundreds of people attended such an action at Tsinghua University, according to AFP. Many were holding blank papers, a symbol of defiance of Chinese censorship.
According to Reuters, Chinese authorities are actively blocking the spread of information about the protests on the Web by deleting related videos.
Breaking the record for COVID-19
On November 27, China re-updated the anti-record for the daily incidence of coronavirus. according to statistics on site The National Health Committee of the People’s Republic of China detected viruses in 39,791 people in the last day. At the same time, more than 36 thousand people get the disease asymptomatically.
The number of patients who developed active symptoms was only 3,709.
Most carriers of the virus were detected in Guangdong province, located in the south of the country. The top three in terms of incidence also included the cities of Beijing and Chongqing.
A day ago, the virus was found in 39 thousand 506 people in China, one patient died. The number of people who lost their lives due to coronavirus in China reached 5 thousand 233.
The incidence in China began to increase sharply from November 24. The previous daily maximum number of infected people was recorded on 14 April. Due to another summit, the government imposed a strict lockdown, explaining the need for a relatively low vaccination level in China and its desire to protect the elderly.
Fire in Urumqi
One of the factors provoking active protests in the country was the fire that recently killed ten people and injured nine more in a residential building in the city of Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The incident took place on November 24. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, residents of the house were quarantined, so they could not leave their apartments quickly. In addition, due to the closure of the roads, the fire could not be extinguished for a long time due to the fire crews reaching the emergency site longer than usual.
The country’s authorities deny that the restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 caused the deaths, but expressing their condolences to the families of the victims, local officials in Urumqi pledged to “restore order” by gradually lifting the stringent measures.