Hundreds of people took to the streets in Beijing and Shanghai on Sunday to protest against China's zero-COVID policy in a rare outpouring of public anger against the state.
This frame grab from eyewitness video footage made available via AFPTV on November 27, 2022 shows demonstrators shouting slogans in Shanghai. Videos on social media also showed protests in other cities across China, as public opposition to the government's hardline zero-COVID policy mounts.
A deadly fire on Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang region, has become a fresh catalyst for public anger, with many blaming lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts. Authorities deny the claims. Participants sang the national anthem and "the Internationale"—a standard of the international communist movement—and chanted "freedom will prevail" and "no to lockdowns, we want freedom," they said.And in Shanghai on Sunday afternoon, hundreds of people gathered in the megacity's downtown to hold what appeared to be a silent protest, an eyewitness told AFP, near where a demonstration had erupted just hours earlier.
A person who attended the Shanghai protests but who asked not to be identified told AFP the first rally was in full swing at 2:00 a.m. , with one group mourning the 10 people killed in the Urumqi fire while another group chanted slogans. Some of the words echoed a banner that was hung over a Beijing bridge just before the Communist Party Congress in October."When I arrived...I think there were at least 100 people there, maybe 200," the undergraduate said.Photos and videos he showed AFP corroborated his account.
Videos from Xi'an, Guangzhou and Wuhan showing similar small protests also spread on social media. AFP was unable to verify the footage independently.China reported 39,506 domestic COVID-19 cases Sunday, a record high but small compared to caseloads in the West at the height of the pandemic.
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