Police forcibly removed the protesters demanding President Xi Jinping’s resignation and the end of the Chinese Communist Party‘s rule from China’s financial center; however, hours later, people gathered there once more, and reports on social media suggested that protests also spread to at least seven other cities, including the capital of Beijing, and dozens of university campuses.
Large-scale protests are extremely uncommon in China, where it is common practice to restrict public expressions of opposition; but a frontal rebuke of Xi, the nation’s most powerful leader in decades, is unique.
China is the only major nation still working to halt COVID-19 transmission three years after the virus first appeared. Under its “zero COVID” policy, millions of people are frequently forced to stay inside for weeks at a time and are subject to nearly constant testing. Initial support for the steps to reduce mortality while other nations saw disastrous waves of infections was widespread, but in recent weeks, that support has started to dwindle.
Then, on Friday, an apartment building caught fire, killing 10, and many think that the prolonged lockdown caused their rescue to be delayed. The Chinese people’s tolerance for the draconian measures appears to have reached breaking point, which led to a weekend of protests.
In Shanghai, which endured a disastrous lockdown in the spring during which people struggled to obtain groceries and medications and were forcibly taken into centralized quarantine, hundreds of protesters gathered late on Saturday.
One group of demonstrators carried candles, flowers, and signs in memory of those who perished in the fire to a roadway bearing the name of the city in far-western China where the fire occurred. Another demonstrator, who insisted on being anonymous, claimed to be more active, yelling slogans and singing the national anthem.
The slogans, which The Associated Press heard in a footage of the demonstration, were “Xi Jinping! Resign now, CCP! Step aside! As head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, Xi is arguably China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. Some predict that he will try to hold on to power indefinitely.
The protester and a second individual, Zhao, who only provided his last name, confirmed the chanting. Both insisted on having their identities kept secret out of fear of being arrested or facing punishment.
The unidentified protester claimed that the environment during the demonstration promoted discussion of forbidden subjects like the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, in which the Communist Party in power had instructed troops to fire on pro-democracy student demonstrators. Others demanded an official apology for the fatalities caused by the fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang. One native Xinjiang resident of the Uyghur ethnic group, who has been the focus of a widespread security crackdown, related his experiences with prejudice and police violence.
The protester, who said it was his first time participating, said: “Everyone thinks that Chinese people are afraid to come out and demonstrate that they don’t have any courage.” Actually, I had this thought in my heart as well. However, when I arrived there, I discovered that everyone there was incredibly fearless due to the atmosphere.
In the early hours of Sunday, the picture changed from tranquil to aggressive. As they attempted to pull people off the main street, hundreds of police officers surrounded the demonstrators and dispersed the first, more energetic group before moving in on the second. The demonstrator claimed to have seen numerous people being dragged away by police and crammed into vehicles, but he was unable to identify them.
Zhao, the demonstrator, claimed that two of his buddies had been pepper sprayed as well as beating by police. He claimed that when he attempted to stop police from removing his friend, they stepped on his feet. He was left barefoot after misplacing his shoes during the protest.
Zhao said that the following chant was shouted by protesters: “(We) do not want PCR (tests), but want freedom.”
Crowds gathered once more at the same location on Sunday afternoon and protested PCR tests once more. People observed and recorded as cops began pushing people.
