Protests against strict Covid-19 regulations escalated across China in late November 2022, after at least 10 were killed when a fire ripped through a locked down building in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi. Frustration with ongoing restrictions boiled over with mass gatherings, police-protester clashes, disobedience of Covid rules, and rare anti-government chants in key cities and at dozens of university campuses.
Dozens of Covid protesters still behind bars in China, NGO says
Campaigners and media outlets have reported in recent weeks that Chinese authorities have quietly detained an unknown number of protesters, including university students and journalists.
‘Give me my youth back’: Students return to the forefront of China protests
China’s current student cohort – the first generation with no living memory of the Tiananmen crackdown – have received a wholly patriotic education from birth, and are often characterised as less politically defiant than their predecessors. That view has been tested.
China’s zero-Covid protests show the limit of Uyghur solidarity
News that at least 10 people had died in an apartment block blaze in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, unleashed long-simmering resentment over strict health curbs. But few seemed to know the victims were Uyghur families torn apart by Beijing’s crackdown in the region.
China protester detained for 9 days after rallying against Covid restrictions, mother says
Yang Zijing, 25, was detained on the evening of December 4 in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou after attending a protest the week before, her mother said.
China’s ‘blank placard’ Covid protests: What Hong Kong officials could learn from their Beijing counterparts
“At least with respect to Covid, the Chinese people’s desire to be free seems to have been accepted as valid by the central government,” writes Paul G. Harris.
How Beijing residents dodged Covid curbs by eating in underground restaurants, drinking at secret bars
Ahead of recent relaxations to Covid restrictions, some residents found ways to skirt the rules, with news of eateries and cafes offering dine-in services – prohibited in much of the capital – circulating on social media and drawing hundreds of likes.
Xi Jinping signalled to EU chief China may adopt more openness in Covid response
“It was mainly students or teenagers in university. That’s the explanation that was given,” one senior European official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.”
US senators warn China against crackdown on recent Covid protests
In a letter made public Friday, 42 members of the 100-strong Senate recalled the Chinese Communist Party’s violent suppression of a student-led democracy uprising centered in Tiananmen Square in 1989.