Protests erupt in Xinjiang and Beijing after deadly fire

[Hamartia Antidote]

Protests erupt in Xinjiang and Beijing after deadly fire

Crowds took to the streets in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi, chanting "End the lockdown!" and pumping their fists in the air, after a deadly fire on Thursday triggered anger over their prolonged COVID-19 lockdown.

www.reuters.com

Nov 26 (Reuters) - Public anger in China towards widening COVID-19 lockdowns across the country erupted into rare protests in China’s far western Xinjiang region and the country's capital of Beijing, as nationwide infections set another record.

Crowds took to the streets on Friday night in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi, chanting "End the lockdown!" and pumping their fists in the air, after a deadly fire on Thursday triggered anger over their prolonged COVID-19 lockdown according to videos circulated on Chinese social media on Friday night.

Videos showed people in a plaza singing China's national anthem with its lyric, "Rise up, those who refuse to be slaves!" while others shouted that they wanted to be released from lockdowns.

Reuters verified that the footage was published from Urumqi, where many of its 4 million residents have been under some of the country's longest lockdowns, barred from leaving their homes for as long as 100 days.


In the capital of Beijing 2,700 km (1,678 miles) away, some residents under lockdown staged small-scale protests or confronted their local officials over movement restrictions placed on them, with some successfully pressuring them into lifting them ahead of a schedule.

A crucial spark for the public anger was a fire in a high-rise building in Urumqi that killed 10 on Thursday night, whose case went viral on social media as many internet users surmised that residents could not escape in time because the building was partially locked down.

Urumqi officials abruptly held a news conference in the early hours of Saturday to deny COVID measures had hampered escape and rescue, but internet users continued to question the official narrative.

"The Urumqi fire got everyone in the country upset," said Sean Li, a resident in Beijing.

A planned lockdown for his compound "Berlin Aiyue" was called off on Friday after residents protested to their local leader and convinced him to cancel it, negotiations that were captured by a video posted on social media.

The residents had caught wind of the plan after seeing workers putting barriers on their gates. "That tragedy could have happened to any of us," he said.

By Saturday evening, at least ten other compounds lifted lockdown before the announced end-date after residents complained, according to a Reuters tally of social media posts by residents.

A separate video shared with Reuters showed Beijing residents in an unidentifiable part of the city marching around an open-air carpark on Saturday, shouting "End the lockdown".

The Beijing government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

ASKING TOUGH QUESTIONS​

Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, said the comments from authorities that the residents of the Urumqi building had been able to go downstairs and thus escape was likely to have been perceived as victim-blaming and further fuelled 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 increasingly asking tough questions and are wary about following orders," Yang said.

Xinjiang is home to 10 million Uyghurs. Rights groups and Western governments have long accused Beijing of abuses against the mainly Muslim ethnic minority, including forced labour in internment camps. China strongly rejects such claims.

China defends President Xi Jinping's signature zero-COVID policy as life-saving and necessary to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system. Officials have vowed to continue with it despite the growing public pushback and its mounting toll on the world's second-biggest economy.

China said on Friday it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves for the second time this year, releasing liquidity to prop up a faltering economy.

The next few weeks could be the worst in China since the early weeks of the pandemic both for the economy and the healthcare system, Mark Williams of Capital Economics said in note this week, as efforts to contain the current outbreak will require additional localised lockdowns in many cities, which will further depress economic activity.

For Friday, the country recorded 34,909 daily local cases, low by global standards but the third record in a row, with infections spreading numerous cities, prompting widespread lockdowns and other curbs on movement and business.

Shanghai, China's most populous city and financial hub which endured a two month lockdown earlier this year, tightened testing requirements on Saturday for entering cultural venues such as museums and libraries, requiring people to present a negative COVID test taken within 48 hours, down from 72 hours earlier.

 

[Mista]

China's Xinjiang loosens some restrictions after lockdown protests

TAIPEI: Authorities in China's western Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi on Saturday (Nov 26) after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city's draconian zero-COVID lockdown that had lasted more than three months. The displays of...

www.channelnewsasia.com

China's Xinjiang loosens some restrictions after lockdown protests​

TAIPEI: Authorities in China's western Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi on Saturday (Nov 26) after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city's draconian zero-COVID lockdown that had lasted more than three months.

The displays of public defiance were fanned by anger over a fire in an apartment compound that had killed 10, according to the official death toll, as emergency workers took three hours to extinguish the blaze — a delay many attributed to obstacles caused by anti-virus measures.

The demonstrations, as well as public anger online, are the latest signs of building frustration with China's intense approach to controlling COVID-19. It's the only major country in the world that still is fighting the pandemic through mass testing and lockdowns.

During Xinjiang's lockdown, some residents elsewhere in the city have had their doors chained physically shut, including one who spoke to The Associated Press who declined to be named for fear of retribution. Many in Urumqi believe such brute-force tactics may have prevented residents from escaping in Friday's fire and that the official death toll was an undercount.

Officials denied the accusations, saying there were no barricades in the building and that residents were permitted to leave. Anger boiled over after Urumqi city officials held a press conference about the fire in which they appeared to shift responsibility for the deaths onto the apartment tower’s residents.

“Some residents’ ability to rescue themselves was too weak," said Li Wensheng, head of Urumqi’s fire department.

Related:​

China's tightening COVID-19 curbs fuel pushback​

Commentary: Hard to back down from zero-COVID, even if Xi Jinping wanted to​

People in Urumqi largely marched peacefully in big puffy winter jackets in the cold winter night.

Videos of protests featured people holding the Chinese flag and shouting “Open up, open up." They spread rapidly on Chinese social media despite heavy censorship. In some scenes, people shouted and pushed against rows of men in the white whole-body hazmat suits that local government workers and pandemic-prevention volunteers wear, according to the videos.

By Saturday, most had been deleted by censors. The Associated Press could not independently verify all the videos, but two Urumqi residents who declined to be named out of fear of retribution said large-scale protests occurred Friday night. One of them said he had friends who participated.

The AP pinpointed the locations of two of the videos of the protests in different parts of Urumqi. In one video, police in face masks and hospital gowns faced off against shouting protesters. In another, one protester is speaking to a crowd about their demands. It is unclear how widespread the protests were.

In one video, which the AP could not independently verify, Urumqi's top official, Yang Fasen, told angry protesters he would open up low-risk areas of the city the following morning.

That promise was realised the next day, as Urumqi authorities announced that residents of low risk areas would be allowed to move freely within their neighborhoods. Still, many other neighborhoods remain under lockdown.

Officials also triumphantly declared Saturday that they had basically achieved “societal zero-COVID," meaning that there was no more community spread and that new infections were being detected only in people already under health monitoring, such as those in a centralised quarantine facility.

Social media users greeted the news with disbelief and sarcasm. “Only China can achieve this speed,” wrote one user on Weibo.

On Chinese social media, where trending topics are manipulated by censors, the “zero-COVID” announcement was number one trending hashtag on both Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, and Douyin, the Chinese edition of Tiktok. The apartment fire and protests became a lightning rod for public anger, as millions shared posts questioning China's pandemic controls or mocking the country's stiff propaganda and harsh censorship controls.

Related:​

China's zero-COVID policies save lives - but not livelihoods​

Commentary: Human and economic costs of China’s zero-COVID strategy are mounting​

The explosion of criticism marks a sharp turn in public opinion. Early on in the pandemic, China's approach to controlling COVID-19 was hailed by its own citizens as minimising deaths at a time when other countries were suffering devastating waves of infections.

China's leader Xi Jinping had held up the approach as an example of the superiority of the Chinese system in comparison to the West and especially the US, which had politicised the use of face masks and had difficulties enacting widespread lockdowns.

But support for “zero-COVID” has cratered in recent months, as tragedies sparked public anger. Last week, the Zhengzhou city government in the central province of Henan apologised for the death of a four-month-old baby. She died after a delay in receiving medical attention while suffering vomiting and diarrhea in quarantine at a hotel in Zhengzhou.

The government has doubled down its policy even as it loosens some measures, such as shortening quarantine times. The central government has repeatedly said it will stick to “zero COVID.”

Meanwhile, in Beijing, health authorities reported 2,454 new COVID-19 cases in the past 15 hours on Saturday. Much of the city is also under lockdown.

In numerous residential compounds in Beijing’s north-eastern suburbs, residents have banded together to oppose measures by local authorities and unelected resident’s associations to lock gates and force neighbors into quarantine centers.

Police responded but no violence was known to have occurred. At the Yutianxia community on Saturday, an hours-long confrontation between police, residents and the Communist Party neighborhood resulted in an agreement to allow neighbors of three people who tested positive to quarantine at home rather than being taken to a government facility.

Many in Urumqi have been locked down since August, more than three months. They have not been allowed to leave their homes, confined to apartments in high-rise towers. On Friday, the city reported 220 new cases, the vast majority of which were asymptomatic.

One Uyghur woman who declined to be named said that she had been in her apartment since Aug 8, and was not even allowed to open her window. On Friday, residents in her neighborhood defied the order, opening their windows and shouting in protest. She joined in.

“No more lockdowns! No more lockdowns!” they screamed.

 

[LakeHawk180]

I just don’t get the Chinese logic behind lockdowns. Either their leadership is incredibly stupid and stubborn or this is something entirely different.

Are we missing something?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I just don’t get the Chinese logic behind lockdowns. Either their leadership is incredibly stupid and stubborn or this is something entirely different.

Are we missing something?

I have no problem with their lockdowns..it's actually admirable...but unfortunately mistakes are made and things go a little too extreme and people get hurt. You have people throwing things at the police in frustration...obviously things have gone too far and the population is snapping.

 

[applesauce]

I just don’t get the Chinese logic behind lockdowns. Either their leadership is incredibly stupid and stubborn or this is something entirely different.

Are we missing something?

yes, if going by us % death numbers, without lockdowns china would have maybe 4 million deaths. compared to under 5000 now.

people are saying lockdowns cant be forever since covid isnt going away and they're probably right, some day they'll have to open up. but maybe they are waiting for better vaccines or something.

 

[tower9]

yes, if going by us % death numbers, without lockdowns china would have maybe 4 million deaths. compared to under 5000 now.

people are saying lockdowns cant be forever since covid isnt going away and they're probably right, some day they'll have to open up. but maybe they are waiting for better vaccines or something.

The other East Asian countries have managed to control Covid while not having these autistic draconian lockdowns that cage people in their apartments for months which is fucking insane. So are Chinas leaders just autistic sociopaths?

 

[applesauce]

The other East Asian countries have managed to control Covid while not having these autistic draconian lockdowns that cage people in their apartments for months which is fucking insane. So are Chinas leaders just autistic sociopaths?

by those nations % numbers, it would still be nearly a million people when extrapolated to china
again, i dont necessarily agree with the forever lock downs, but wantonly opening up could cause the deaths of a million people

 

[Abdul Rehman Majeed]

I just don’t get the Chinese logic behind lockdowns. Either their leadership is incredibly stupid and stubborn or this is something entirely different.

Are we missing something?

China is a communist coutry.

Unlike capitalistic countries like US, Europe and India, China cares about the lives her people.

 

[tower9]

by those nations % numbers, it would still be nearly a million people when extrapolated to china
again, i dont necessarily agree with the forever lock downs, but wantonly opening up could cause the deaths of a million people

A million people out of 1.4 billion is tiny. You can’t keep locking down like this forever. It’s not sustainable.

 

[Abdul Rehman Majeed]

A million people out of 1.4 billion is tiny. You can’t keep locking down like this forever. It’s not sustainable.

Every chinese life counts.

You don't understand communism.

 

[gambit]

by those nations % numbers, it would still be nearly a million people when extrapolated to china
again, i dont necessarily agree with the forever lock downs, but wantonly opening up could cause the deaths of a million people

It is that stark binary choice. It is very much either/or. We know as far back as 1.5 yr ago that the mask does not work, and now the vaccines just ease the symptoms, not preventing spread. The most vulnerable demographic is the seniors. So the longer the lock downs, the worse it will be for China.

 

[applesauce]

A million people out of 1.4 billion is tiny. You can’t keep locking down like this forever. It’s not sustainable.

what are you, a psychopath?

It is that stark binary choice. It is very much either/or. We know as far back as 1.5 yr ago that the mask does not work, and now the vaccines just ease the symptoms, not preventing spread. The most vulnerable demographic is the seniors. So the longer the lock downs, the worse it will be for China.

TF are you talking about? masks do work.
its no magic pill, but if two people are both wearing masks properly, transmission can be lowered by 95%. or are you trying to tell us that doctors wore masks for 100+ years because they are all a part of some global conspiracy?

 

[kankan326]

I just don’t get the Chinese logic behind lockdowns. Either their leadership is incredibly stupid and stubborn or this is something entirely different.

Are we missing something?

Chinese leaders tend to listen to experts' advice. I believe experts don't think the covid is as weak as people believe. Death and cost caused by covid are deliberately ignored by other countries.

 

[gambit]

TF are you talking about? masks do work.
its no magic pill, but if two people are both wearing masks properly, transmission can be lowered by 95%. or are you trying to tell us that doctors wore masks for 100+ years because they are all a part of some global conspiracy?

Masks do not work. Not the crap in the public markets. You forget that I am in the semicon industry and I know what works. The fab's pump shops guys laughed when we implemented COVID protocols, from masks to partitions. They are responsible for the fab's cleanrooms. Their vacuum pumps have to extract particles smaller than the virus. So they know that the public COVID measures are just theatre.

 

[Beast]

I just don’t get the Chinese logic behind lockdowns. Either their leadership is incredibly stupid and stubborn or this is something entirely different.

Are we missing something?

Yes and India with 530000 deaths from covid and USA with 1.1 million death are incredible intelligent and humanity.

Checkout how many Chinese killed by covid compare to the 2 clown countries....