Massive anti-lockdown protests in China’s Xinjiang province

protests in Xinjiang

In the capital of Xinjiang province, people protested against the tough corona measures.

(Photo: Video Obtained via REUTERS)

There have been massive protests against corona lockdowns in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang. “End the lockdown,” chanted the crowd in the streets, according to videos posted to social media Friday night.

Checks by the Reuters news agency showed that the videos were released in the provincial capital, Urumqi. In other recordings, people could be seen and heard singing the Chinese national anthem, which reads “Rise! All who no longer want to be slaves.”

China has imposed one of the longest lockdowns in Xinjiang because of the new corona wave. Many of Urumqi’s four million residents are not allowed to leave their homes for up to 100 days. There have been around 100 new corona cases in the city over the past two days. The number of infections has recently risen in the People’s Republic, making it less likely that the strict zero-Covid policy will be relaxed anytime soon.

The protests were triggered by a fire in a skyscraper in Urumqi. It broke out on Thursday evening, killing ten people. The view spread on social networks that the building was partially locked and that many residents therefore did not make it out in time.

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protests in Shanghai

At a hastily called press conference on Saturday, Urumqi officials said the coronavirus measures had not hindered escape and rescue. One of them said residents could have gotten out of the building faster if they’d had better knowledge of the safety precautions. About ten million Uyghurs live in Xinjiang. Human rights groups and Western governments accuse China of oppressing the Muslim minority.

On the night of Sunday, there were also extraordinary protests in the economic metropolis of Shanghai because of the fire. Young people in particular had gathered on Wulumuqi Lu, which translates as “Urumqi Street”, in the city. In Shanghai, hundreds of demonstrators faced hundreds of police officers. The protesters behaved peacefully, shouting “Xi Jinping resign” and “We want freedom,” among other things. Protests of this kind are extremely unusual as the country is extremely under government control. Longtime China observer and Dutch correspondent Eva Rammeloo, who covered the protests in Shanghai, wrote on Twitter: “I’ve never seen anything like it in the decade I’ve been covering China.”

More: New lockdowns are squeezing China’s growth and weighing on European companies

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