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Protests erupted in cities and campuses across China this weekend as frustrated and outraged citizens took to the streets in a surprising wave of demonstrations against the government’s “zero covid” policy and the leaders who enforce it .
Residents of Shanghai, China’s most populous city, rallied late Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday, calling for an end to pandemic lockdowns and chanting, “We want freedom!” and “Unlock Xinjiang, Unlock All China!” according to witnesses of the event. In even more extraordinary scenes of public anger directed at the government’s top leader, a group of protesters there chanted: “Xi Jinping, resign!” and “Communist Party, resign!”
“There were people everywhere,” said Chen, a 29-year-old Shanghai resident who arrived at the vigil around 2 a.m. Sunday. “At first, people were shouting to lift the blockade on Xinjiang, and then it became ‘Xi Jinping, resign, resign from the Communist Party!'” he said, giving only his last name due to security concerns.
The immediate trigger for the demonstrations, which were also seen at universities in Beijing, Xi’an and Nanjing on Saturday, was a deadly fire in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang in China’s far northwest, on Thursday. Ten people, including three children, died after emergency fire services were unable to get close enough to an apartment building engulfed in flames. Residents blamed lockdown-related measures for hampering rescue efforts.
Protesters and police clashed in Shanghai on November 27 as protests over China’s covid restrictions erupted for a third day and spread to several cities. (Video: Reuters)
On Friday, officials denied that covid restrictions were a factor and said the “ability of some residents to rescue themselves was too weak,” fueling more ridicule and anger that swept Chinese social media platforms. Residents of Urumqi, one of China’s most heavily policed cities as a result of a wider security crackdown, came out to protest on Friday. Many waved China’s national flag and called for the blockades to be lifted completely.
That discomfort spread. On Saturday, Shanghai residents gathered for a candlelight vigil on Wulumuqi Middle Road, named after Urumqi, which turned into the rally. Photographs sent to The Washington Post by a photographer at the scene showed protesters holding blank sheets of paper — symbolic opposition to the country’s widespread censorship — and placing flowers and candles for the victims as police looked on.
One person held up pieces of paper with the number ’10’ written in Uighur and Chinese in reference to the 10 victims in Urumqi. The crowd began to turn the blank pages.
“Everyone was holding him,” said Meng, the photographer, who gave only his last name for security reasons. “No one said anything, but we all knew what he meant. Delete all you want. You cannot censor what is not said.”
Such demonstrations are extremely rare in China, where authorities move quickly to stamp out all forms of dissent. Authorities are particularly wary of protests at universities, the site of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 that spread across the country and ended in a bloody crackdown and massacre around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square .
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At the Communication University of China in Nanjing, posters mocking “zero covid” were removed on Saturday, prompting a student to stand for hours holding a blank piece of paper in protest. Hundreds of students have joined in solidarity.
Some laid flowers on the ground to honor the victims of the fire and chanted, “Rest in peace.” Others sang the Chinese national anthem as well as the leftist anthem “The International”. They shouted: “Long live the people!”
“I used to feel lonely, but yesterday everyone was together,” said a 21-year-old photography student, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “I feel that we are all brave, brave enough to pursue the rights that are owed to us, brave enough to criticize these wrongs, brave enough to express our position.”
“Students are like a spring, under pressure every day. Yesterday, that spring picked up again,” he said.
Videos posted on social media on Sunday show a crowd of students at Beijing’s Tsinghua University holding blank papers and chanting: “Democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech!” Through a speaker, a young woman shouted: “If we don’t speak out because we’re afraid of being arrested, I think our people will be disappointed with us. As a Tsinghua student, I will regret it all my life.”
Crowds also gathered at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, raising their phones as part of a vigil for those who died in Urumqi, according to social media posts. Other posts show blurred protest slogans on campuses in four cities and two provinces. In Chengdu, a city in the southwest, videos show people gathering in the streets on Sunday afternoon. “We don’t want lifelong rulers,” they cried. “China doesn’t need an emperor.”
Across the country, and not just at universities, citizens seem to be reaching a breaking point. In the name of “covid zero”, they have lived through almost three years of relentless controls that have left many sealed in their homes, sent to quarantine centers or forbidden to travel. Residents must undergo repeated tests for coronavirus and surveillance of their movement and health status.
The Urumqi fire followed a bus crash in September that killed 27 people while being taken to a quarantine center. In April, a sudden lockdown in Shanghai left residents without enough food and sparked online and offline protests. Deaths related to the restrictions, including a 3-year-old boy who died after his parents were unable to take him to a hospital, have further fueled public anger.
Health authorities say this strategy of cutting off covid transmission as soon as possible and quarantining all positive cases is the only way to avoid a surge in serious cases and deaths, which would overwhelm the health system. As a result of its low infection rate, China’s population of 1.4 billion has a low level of natural immunity. Those who have been immunized have received domestically made vaccines that have proven less effective against the more infectious omicron variant.
As China eases coronavirus restrictions, confusion and anxiety follow
The fire in Xinjiang also comes after weeks of particularly heightened frustration over pandemic policies, which were loosened and then tightened again in some places amid a fresh surge in cases. On Sunday, China reported 39,791 new infections, its fourth consecutive day of a record number of cases.
On Sunday, an article in the state-run People’s Daily called for an “unwavering commitment” to current covid policies. At a briefing on Sunday, Urumqi officials said public transport would partially resume on Monday as part of efforts to gradually lift lockdown measures.
In Shanghai, police eventually swarmed the vigil site and closed off road access. They clashed with protesters, pushing them into cars before dispersing the crowd around 5am. At one point, the crowd tried to prevent police from dragging away a man who was reciting a poem honoring the victims.
Videos released on Sunday show crowds in the area shouting: “Let them go!” an apparent reference to the detainees. Chen said he saw about a dozen people being arrested.
“I’m not the kind of person who’s a leader,” he said, “but if there’s an opportunity to speak up or do something to help, I want to do it.”
Pei-Lin Wu and Vic Chiang in Taipei and Lyric Li in Seoul contributed to this report.