Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday faced unprecedented dissent after thousands of demonstrators protested in cities across the country over the weekend against his zero-Covid strategy, with some daring to openly call for his removal in the streets.
“Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party,” some protesters yelled among hundreds who gathered in the financial hub Shanghai, one of multiple major cities where protests broke out following a deadly fire on November 24 at an apartment block in the far western region of Xinjiang, reports CNN.
The fire appeared to act as a catalyst for searing public anger over China’s strict zero-Covid measures after videos emerged that seemed to suggest lockdown measures delayed firefighters from reaching the victims.
In many parts of the country, residents in locked-down neighbourhoods tore down barriers and took to the streets, following mass anti-lockdown protests that swept Urumqi on Friday night.
Such widespread scenes of anger and defiance, some of which stretched into the early hours of Monday morning, are exceptionally rare in China, where the ruling Communist Party ruthlessly cracks down on all expressions of dissent, CNN reported.
But three years into the pandemic, many people have been pushed to the brink by the government’s incessant use of lockdowns, Covid tests and quarantines, as well as ever-tightening censorship and continued onslaught on personal freedoms.The ratcheting-up of restrictions in recent months, coupled with a series of deaths blamed on an over-zealous policing of the controls, has brought matters to a head.
