China’s anti-lockdown protest reaches Wuhan, where Covid began

Hundreds of people took to the streets of China’s Wuhan – the city where the deadly coronavirus pandemic originated in 2019 – as the anti-Covid lockdown protests gained momentum for the third day on Sunday.

A wave of civil disobedience spread across major cities like Beijing and Shanghai as public anger grew against the hardline norms to abide by China’s zero-Covid policy.

Videos went viral on social media platforms showing protesters tearing down metal barricades, overturning Covid testing tents and demanding an end to lockdowns as they clashed with security officials in Wuhan. Hindustan Times could not independently verify the videos.

A street in the centre of Wuhan, as tracked by news agency AFP, multiple live streams – that were quickly censored – showed massive crowds walking through the streets cheering and filming on their phones. Similar demonstrations also erupted in Chengdu.

What we know so far:

The protests were triggered by a fire at a residential high-rise building in the city of Urumqi – the capital of the northwest Xinjiang region – that killed 10 people. Social media users shared videos of the incident accusing the Chinese authorities that the stringent lockdown was a factor in the death toll.

Over the weekend, students on numerous university campuses around China gathered with blank sheets to protest against the lockdowns. “We just want our basic human rights. We can’t leave our homes without getting a test. It was the accident in Xinjiang that pushed people too far,” a 26-year-old protester in Shanghai, who declined to be identified, told AFP.

What started with a candlelight vigil in solidarity with the deaths in Urumqi, soon turned into full-throated protests with slogans like ‘down with Xi Jinping’ and ‘lift lockdown’ were heard in videos from the protest sites. Photos and videos also showed graffiti on the walls of universities that have since been covered up.

Meanwhile, police kept a heavy presence across Shanghai and other cities where demonstrations were witnessed. Authorities also curbed online discussion of the protest, with linked phrases scrubbed from Twitter-like Weibo platform as soon as footage of the rallies emerged.

While the rest of the world eased out of lockdowns to restore normalcy, China has spent nearly all of the past three years living with some of the strictest Covid curbs. China has been reporting yet another worrying surge in Covid cases over the past few days, including a 24-hour record of nearly 40,000 on Saturday – prompting authorities to impose the restrictions.