Unprecedented protest demonstrations are being carried out in the cities of China against the COVID-19 lockdown, and the protests have not been triggered in a matter of a few days, but were triggered back in the month of May only. From 18th May, 2022 till now, protest demonstrations have been carried out in more than 850 regions of the country. In 2022, there have been a total of 688 strikes till now. But because these protests were organized on small scales, these were suppressed without much brouhaha.
After the lives of 10 people were lost due to a fire in a sealed building on 26th November in Urumqi, protests in China began on a large scale. Now, protests are being organized in 19 cities including business hubs like Shanghai and Beijing, and in order to curb these protest demonstrations, which are also demanding the resignation of President Xi Jinping, the Chinese administration has come up with a new strategy. To stifle the protests, university students are being sent home and their hostels are being vacated. They are being sent home so that the institutes get vacated and nobody will be able to protest or assemble in groups, creating a crowd. On the other hand, the administration has been saying that the hostels are being emptied in order to protect the students from a probable COVID-19 infection.
Police strictness against the protestors has increased as well, and a large number of protestors has been taken in custody by security forces, and therefore, there is no news of protests for the last two days. The government’s behaviour has changed as well, some relief has been provided in the COVID-19 restrictions, but the zero COVID policy has not been taken back. In Shanghai too, the police have increased its patrolling and has started frisking people.
