SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — Angry crowds took to the streets of Shanghai early Sunday calling for an end to lockdowns, as China grapples with mounting public protests against its zero-Covid policy.
In Shanghai's central Wulumuqi street, named for Urumqi in Mandarin, in a video widely shared on social media and geolocated by AFP, some protesters can be heard chanting "Xi Jinping, step down!
CCP, step down!" in a rare display of public opposition to the country's top leadership.
Video taken by an eyewitness on Sunday showed people gathering in central Shanghai to mourn the 10 victims killed in Thursday's Urumqi fire in Xinjiang.
Following the deadly Urumqi fire, hundreds of people massed outside the city's government offices, chanting: "Lift lockdowns!," footage partially verified by AFP shows.
In another clip, dozens of people are seen marching through a neighborhood in the east of the city, shouting the same slogan before facing off with a line of hazmat-clad officials and angrily rebuking security personnel.
Mourning
Other vigils took place at universities across the country, according to posts widely circulating on social media.
A person who attended the Shanghai protests but asked not to be named told AFP they arrived at the rally at 2 a.m. to see that "a group of people was mourning and sending flowers on the sidewalk, another group of people was chanting slogans."
"There were minor clashes but in all, civilized law enforcement," they added.
"At last a couple of people were taken away by the police for unknown reasons."
Authorities were swift to curb online discussion of the protest, with phrases related to the visit scrubbed from the Twitter-like Weibo platform almost immediately after footage of the rallies emerged.
The protests come against a backdrop of mounting public frustration over the Chinese government's zero-tolerance approach to Covid and follow sporadic rallies in other cities.
China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid strategy, with authorities wielding snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing to snuff out new outbreaks as they emerge.
Shanghai, a city of more than 25 million people, endured a grueling two-month lockdown earlier this year that saw widespread food shortages.
A number of high-profile cases in which emergency services have been allegedly slowed down by Covid lockdowns, leading to deaths, have catalyzed public opposition to the measures.
In the wake of the protests, officials on Saturday said the city "had basically reduced social transmissions to zero" and would "restore the normal order of life for residents in low-risk areas in a staged and orderly manner."
China reported 39,506 domestic Covid cases Sunday — a record high but comparatively small compared to caseloads in the West at the height of the pandemic.
