Hundreds of people yesterday took to the streets in Beijing and Shanghai to protest China’s “zero COVID” policy in a rare outpouring of public anger against the state.
China’s hardline disease prevention strategy is stoking public frustration, with many growing weary of snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing campaigns.
A deadly fire on Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang region, has become a fresh catalyst for anger, with many blaming lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts.
Photo: AFP
Authorities deny the claims.
Hundreds yesterday rallied at Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University to protest against lockdowns, said one witness who asked to remain anonymous.
“At 11:30am, students started holding up signs at the entrance of the canteen, then more and more people joined. Now there are 200 to 300 people,” the person said.
Photo: AFP
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.
They described students holding up blank pieces of paper, a symbolic protest against censorship.
A video that appeared to be taken at the same location, but was quickly taken down, showed students shouting: “Democracy and the rule of law, freedom of expression.”
Photo: AFP
Other vigils took place overnight at universities across China, while videos from Xian, Guangzhou and Wuhan showed similar small protests.
Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Shanghai yesterday afternoon near where a demonstration had erupted just hours earlier, an eyewitness said.
Demonstrators holding blank pieces of paper and white flowers stood silently at several intersections, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo: AP
Footage from the area showed a crowd chanting during what appeared to be the late afternoon.
Later in the evening, an Agence France-Presse reporter saw a heavy security presence.
Dozens of police in yellow high-visibility jackets formed a thick line, cordoning off the streets where the protests had taken place, while their colleagues asked people to leave the area.
Crowds had gathered hours before on nearby Wulumuqi Street — named for Urumqi in Mandarin — with video showing protesters chanting: “Xi Jinping, step down; CCP, step down” in a rare display of public opposition to the Chinese Communist Party’s top leadership.
A person who attended the Shanghai protests but asked not to be identified said that the first rally was in full swing at 2am, with one group mourning the 10 people killed in the Urumqi fire, while another group chanted slogans.
Footage taken by an eyewitness showed a large crowd shouting and raising blank pieces of paper as they faced several lines of police.
Multiple witnesses said several people were taken away by the police.
Authorities were swift to curb online discussion of the protest, with related phrases scrubbed from Sina Weibo almost immediately after footage of the rallies emerged.
China’s state broadcaster is also cutting close-up shots of maskless fans at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, after early coverage sparked anger at home.
During a live broadcast of yesterday’s group game between Japan and Costa Rica, state broadcaster CCTV Sports replaced close-up shots of maskless fans waving flags with images of players, officials or the soccer stadium.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS