China: Angry protests against restrictions are escalating

Protests against the Chinese government’s strict restrictions to contain the Coronavirus continued on Monday, in several cities, while the Chinese police cracked down on hundreds of demonstrators near the diplomatic quarter in Beijing.

The police has greatly increased its presence in many major cities.

In Beijing, Shanghai and many other cities of more than a million people, the security presence was increasingly evident in the streets on Monday.

Police also checked mobile phones for suspicious information, witnesses said on social media.

Several protesters have been arrested since the weekend, though it is not yet clear how many.

In a brief response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian expressed his conviction in Beijing that the fight against the Covid pandemic will be successful “under the leadership of the Communist Party with the support of the people”.

The largely unusual protests in the communist-ruled country of 1.4 billion people were sparked, apparently by anger over a deadly fire that ripped through an apartment building in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, killing at least 10 people a day.

Several residents said, via social media, that coronavirus restrictions had hampered rescue efforts, with some people struggling to escape from the burning building due to locked doors.

Some also left their apartments too late, or not at all, for fear of breaching lockdown restrictions, according to reports.

Large parts of the Xinjiang region, of which Urumqi is the capital, were closed for more than 100 days.

In what could be seen as a protest against censorship, many demonstrators on Monday carried white papers and chanted slogans such as “Lift the lockdown” and “We don’t want the PCR test, we want freedom”.

People also took to the streets in Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan and Nanjing.

Videos of the protests circulating on social media quickly disappeared amid Chinese censorship rules.

China is currently experiencing the highest number of Covid-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic.

On Monday, the Beijing Health Commission recorded a record number of about 40,000 new cases.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday expressed his understanding for the protests and appealed to the government in Beijing to allow the demonstrations.

He said that the strict restrictions to contain Covid could be a great burden on the Chinese people, so I understand the people who show their impatience and their complaints on the streets”.

“I can only combine what we’re seeing with the hope that the Chinese authorities will respect this right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly,” he added.

Earlier, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that the Chinese authorities had detained its reporter, Ed Lawrence, in Shanghai, and mistreated him during his arrest, even though he had press credentials.

The Chinese authorities released Lawrence hours after he was detained.

A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry justified the arrest of the journalist by not identifying himself as a journalist and not voluntarily showing his press card.