Nov 26 (Reuters) – Public anger in China over expanding nationwide COVID-19 lockdowns erupted in rare protests in the far western region of Xinjiang and the country’s capital, Beijing, as infections at the national level they set another record.
Crowds took to the streets Friday night in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, chanting “End the lockdown!” and pumping their fists in the air, after a deadly fire on Thursday sparked anger over their prolonged COVID-19 lockdown, according to videos circulating on Chinese social media late Friday.
The videos showed people in a square singing China’s national anthem with the lyrics: “Rise up, you who refuse to be slaves!” while others shouted that they wanted to be freed from the confinements.
Reuters verified that the footage was released from Urumqi, where many of its 4 million residents have been under some of the country’s longest lockdowns, unable to leave their homes for up to 100 days.
In the capital Beijing, 2,700 km (1,678 miles) away, some stranded residents staged small-scale protests or confronted their local officials over movement restrictions, with some pressuring them with success to get them up ahead of schedule.
A crucial spark for public anger was a fire at a high-rise building in Urumqi that killed 10 people on Thursday night, the case of which went viral on social media as many netizens assumed that the residents could not escape in time because the building was partially locked. downward.
Urumqi officials suddenly held a press conference early Saturday to deny that the escape and rescue had been hampered by COVID measures, but netizens continued to question the official narrative.
“The Urumqi fire upset everyone in the country,” said Beijing resident Sean Li.
A planned blockade of their “Berlin Aiyue” complex was called off on Friday after residents protested to their local leader and convinced him to call it off, negotiations that were captured in a video posted on social media social.
Residents had caught wind of the plan after seeing workers putting up barriers at their doors. “This tragedy could have happened to any of us,” he said.
By Saturday evening, at least ten other compounds lifted the lockdown ahead of the announced end date after residents complained, according to a Reuters tally of residents’ social media posts.
[1/3] Protests against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak measures in Urumqi city, Xinjiang Uygur, China in this screenshot taken from a video released on November 25, 2022. Video obtained by Reuters/via REUTERS
A separate video shared with Reuters showed Beijing residents in an unidentified part of the city marching around an outdoor parking lot on Saturday, chanting “End the blockade.”
The government in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
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Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, said comments by authorities that residents of the Urumqi building had been able to get down the stairs and therefore likely escaped had been perceived as to blame the victims and to further public anger.
“During the first two years of COVID, people trusted the government to make the best decisions to keep them safe from the virus. Now people are asking harder and harder questions and are wary of following orders,” Yang said.
Xinjiang is home to 10 million Uighurs. Rights groups and Western governments have long accused Beijing of abuses against the mainly Muslim ethnic minority, including forced labor in internment camps. China strongly rejects these claims.
China is defending President Xi Jinping’s signature zero-COVID policy as life-saving and necessary to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system. Officials have vowed to continue with it despite growing public crackdown and its growing toll on the world’s second-largest economy.
China said on Friday it would cut the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves for the second time this year, freeing up liquidity to shore up a faltering economy.
The coming weeks could be the worst in China since the early weeks of the pandemic for both the economy and the health care system, Mark Williams of Capital Economics said in a note this week, as efforts to contain the current outbreak will require additional localized lockdowns in China. many cities, which will further depress economic activity.
The country recorded 34,909 daily local cases on Friday, a low by global standards but the third record in a row, with infections spreading to numerous cities, prompting widespread lockdowns and other slowdowns in movement and business.
Shanghai, China’s most populous city and financial center that underwent a two-month lockdown earlier this year, on Saturday tightened test requirements to enter cultural sites such as museums and libraries, forcing people to present a negative COVID test done within 48 hours, down from 72. hours before.
Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Editing by William Mallard, Brenda Goh and Louise Heavens
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