Anti-Lockdown Protests Spread Across China Amid Growing Anger At Zero-Covid Strategy

Protesters were shown in videos yelling for Chinese President Xi Jinping to resign or for the ruling party to cede power.

Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Shanghai on Sunday afternoon

New Delhi: As covid cases see an upsurge in China, protests over the country's extensive anti-virus measures moved to Shanghai and other cities on Saturday amid allegations that they may have worsened the death toll in a northwest apartment fire.  

The Shanghai police used pepper spray to stop 300 protesters who had gathered at Middle Urumqi Road at midnight, bringing flowers, candles, and signs reading “Urumqi, November 24, those who died rest in peace" to commemorate the death of 10 individuals caused by a fire in an apartment building in Xinjiang's capital city Urumqi," news agency the Associated Press reported.

Several videos posted on social media, taken in Nanjing in the east, Guangzhou in the south and at least five other cities, showed protesters tussling with police in white protective suits or dismantling barricades used to seal off neighborhoods. 

Protesters were shown in videos yelling for Chinese President Xi Jinping to resign or for the ruling party to cede power. But the posts were deleted immediately on China's social media, as China's Communist Party commonly does to suppress criticism, AP reported.

The Urumqi fire fatalities sparked a flood of angry questions on social media over whether the three hours it took to put out the fire or the victims' attempts to flee may have been impeded by locked doors or other measures. Authorities denied the claim, but the catastrophe became a focal point for public anger over censorship, propaganda, and anti-disease regulations.

The "zero-Covid" policy, which has blocked access to regions across China in an effort to isolate every case, continues to be enforced at a time when other countries are loosening limits and attempting to live with the virus. The restrictions sparked growing resentment against President Xi Jinping's administration.

China continues to grapple with new Covid-19 outbreaks, causing lockdowns and rigid travel restrictions affecting millions of people. The country reported nearly 40,000 new Covid cases on November 27 as opposed to around 35,000 a day earlier, news agency Reuters reported.