China COVID-19 Protests Intensify Following Urumqi Fire; Xi Jinping Urged To Resign

Thousands of Chinese citizens are protesting Beijing's strict and costly "zero COVID" policy as they demand for President Xi Jinping's resignation.

Ten people were killed and nine others injured in a fatal fire at an apartment building on Thursday in Xinjiang, the country's far western province. According to reports, the outrage was caused by lockdown policies that prevented firefighters from reaching the victims on time.

Social media footage and eyewitness testimonies indicate that protests occurred around China on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, per BBC.

Hundreds of people were seen Saturday lighting candles in downtown Shanghai to remember the victims of the Xinjiang fire in videos that were extensively shared on Chinese social media, as reported by AP News.

After that, the protesters yelled, "Need human rights, need freedom," while holding up blank white sheets of paper, a traditional symbol of protest against censorship. On Saturday night, residents of Shanghai, the most populous city in China, gathered along Wulumuqi Road, which bears Urumqi's name, for a candlelight vigil that later degenerated into a protest. Reuters reported that a sizable contingent of police stood by as the crowd held blank pieces of paper as a gesture of protest against censorship. In a video shared on social media, the protesters can be heard afterward yelling, "remove lockdown for Urumqi, lift lockdown for Xinjiang, lift lockdown for all of China!"

People Upset with Xi Jinping's 'Zero-COVID' Strategy Amid Outbreak

China's case counts have reached record highs for days while being low by international standards, with health officials reporting roughly 40,000 new infections on Sunday for the previous day.

The Chinese government argues that its infamous zero-COVID policy is important to save lives and prevent the healthcare system from being overburdened.

Despite escalating public opposition and the enormous burden it is placing on the second-largest economy in the world, officials have decided to continue with it.

According to CNN, on Saturday night, images and videos of student protests at several Chinese institutions surfaced online.

Nanjing Communications University seemed to have hosted the biggest number of crowd. Although there is a challenge in independently authenticating demonstration videos, several of them exhibit extremely frank and direct criticism of the government and President Xi Jinping.

Due in part to China's relatively low vaccination rates and efforts to safeguard the elderly, the "zero-COVID" measure is the last of its sort among the world's major countries.

Snap lockdowns have angered people around the nation, and more general COVID-19 restrictions have sparked recent violent protests from Zhengzhou to Guangzhou.

Shanghai local government officials have not yet commented on the China protests as of present reporting.

Authorities Fail To Suppress Public Anger

This year, rage and protests erupted when the city's 25 million residents were locked down for two months.

Since then, Chinese officials have worked to target its COVID-19 restrictions more precisely, but this effort has been hampered by an increase in infections as the nation experiences its first winter with the highly infectious Omicron variant of the virus.

Many of Urumqi's four million citizens have been placed under lockdown for as long as 100 days, making it impossible for them to leave their homes.

Some citizens under lockdown in Beijing, 2,700 km (1,700 miles) distant, protested or challenged local officials on Saturday about mobility restrictions, forcing them to release them early.

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China, Xi Jinping