In the Chinese capital Beijing and many other cities, mass protests are taking place against the brutal restrictive measures aimed at fighting the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Chinese police are arresting participants of mass demonstrations against the continuation of lockdowns imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is noted that protests continued in the Chinese capital Beijing, the largest city Shanghai, as well as in Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan and other places. Speech participants often take to the streets with blank white papers instead of slogans - in this way they try to bypass censorship bans.
Some protesters are making unusual political demands for the resignation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, the cause of the protests was the "zero covid" policy, which included mass testing, long quarantines and sudden lockdowns. China has gone through a complete crackdown on each subsequent coronavirus outbreak and strict restrictions, with authorities locking down millions of cities even in exceptional cases.
In Beijing, protesters took to the streets near the diplomatic quarter, many of them holding white papers as a sign of protest against censorship in the country. People chanted "Remove quarantine" and "We don't want PCR tests, we want freedom." The police were involved, and the exact number of those arrested is unknown.
"These are the largest protests in China since the democratic movement in 1989, which was brutally suppressed by the military on June 4 of the same year and known as the Tiananmen massacre," the agency said.
According to the BBC, a journalist was beaten in Shanghai
BBC reporter Ed Lawrence was arrested and beaten by police while covering the protests in Shanghai. Lawrence was also handcuffed and held for several hours before being released.
Official Beijing has not commented on the incident. Police said they arrested the journalist to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the crowd.
"These are the largest protests in China since the democratic movement in 1989, which was brutally suppressed by the military on June 4 of the same year and known as the Tiananmen massacre," the agency said.
According to the BBC, a journalist was beaten in Shanghai
BBC reporter Ed Lawrence was arrested and beaten by police while covering the protests in Shanghai. Lawrence was also handcuffed and held for several hours before being released.
Official Beijing has not commented on the incident. Police said they arrested the journalist to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the crowd.
Protests began after the fire in Xinjiang
The Chinese government has a policy of "zero tolerance" for the coronavirus: entire neighborhoods in cities are blocked, people in contact with the sick are under mandatory quarantine, and the sick are isolated in hospitals. The borders of the country remain practically closed.
The protests began after a fire broke out in a residential building in Urumqi, China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. At least ten people died and nine others were injured as a result of the fire that broke out on the evening of November 24. According to the witnesses, people could not escape because the doors of the apartments were blocked due to the blockade and the restrictive measures hindered the work of the rescuers. The Chinese government denies this information.
