(Shanghai) Lockdown protests erupted at dawn on Sunday in Shanghai, eyewitnesses reported, as anger mounts in China over the government’s draconian “zero COVID-19” policy for nearly three years. year.
A video widely circulated on the internet, and which AFP has geolocated in Wulumuqi Street in downtown Shanghai, shows some protesters shouting “Xi Jinping, resign!” and also attacking the Chinese Communist Party, a rare demonstration of hostility against the president and the regime in the economic capital of the country.
Another video transmitted to AFP by an eyewitness shows people gathering in the center of Shanghai to pay homage to the ten people killed in a fire in Urumqi, in Xinjiang (west). Many publications circulating on social networks in China accuse the anti-COVID-19 measures of having aggravated the tragedy by slowing the arrival of help.
According to other social media posts, vigils in memory of Urumqi victims were held at several universities across the country.
A person who took part in the protests in Shanghai told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that he arrived at around 2 a.m. at the rally. “A group of mourners laid flowers on the sidewalk, another group chanted slogans,” said this witness.
“There were a few minor scuffles, but overall the policing was civilized,” he continued. “At least two people were taken away by the police for unknown reasons.”
Authorities were quick to restrict online discussions of the protest. The expression “Urumqi road” was censored on the Weibo platform, close to Twitter, almost immediately after the broadcast of the images of the rallies.
Weariness is growing in China against the draconian policy to fight the pandemic. Sporadic and sometimes violent protests have already taken place in several cities in recent days, including at the world’s largest iPhone factory in central Zhengzhou, owned by Taiwanese giant Foxconn.
Despite several vaccines available, and contrary to the rest of the world, the Asian country continues to impose confinements as soon as cases appear, to quarantine in centers those who test positive and to require almost daily PCR tests to access to public places.