The enormous anti-lockdown protests that broke out over the weekend in major cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and even the capital Beijing are posing the biggest threat to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID campaign yet. Ten people, including a 3-year-old toddler, died in a tragic apartment fire in the far western city of Urumqi on Thursday night. In response, angry Chinese citizens took to the streets to demand an end to lockdowns.
Some people are even calling for the resignation of Xi as well as the Communist Party. Local authorities claim that a malfunctioning power strip that caught fire on the 15th floor of a high-rise apartment and started the tragic fire was to blame, yet it took the fire department more than three hours to douse the flames. Videos of the fire showing fire trucks unable to approach the flames went popular on Chinese social media. Many in the city questioned whether COVID rules had impeded first responders and prevented people from escaping, trapping them inside. Although the government denied this, resentment had already begun to grow since parts of Xinjiang, including its regional capital Urumqi, had been placed under lockdown since August for more than 100 days.
Local authorities claim that a malfunctioning power strip that caught fire on a high-rise apartment’s 15th level was the origin of the fatal incident. Despite this, it took the fire brigade more than three hours to douse the flames. Videos of the fire going popular on Chinese social media showed how difficult it was for fire trucks to get close to the flames. Many in the city questioned whether COVID rules had hindered first responders and prevented those insides from escaping.
As much of Xinjiang, including its regional capital Urumqi, had been placed under lockdown since August for more than 100 days, the authorities denied this, but tensions were already rising.
While some of the demands of the Urumqi locals may have been satisfied, the fatal fire sparked a national outcry against the severe COVID limitations.
The late-Chinese leader Mao Zedong famously said, “a single spark can start a prairie fire.” The “spark” of the Urumqi fire spread beyond the Chinese internet faster than censors could catch up, and by Saturday night, spontaneous protests and vigils popped up across the countries in college campuses and major cities.
Hundreds of angry Shanghai residents gathered on consecutive nights over the weekend symbolically on Middle Urumqi Road in the tony former French Concession neighbourhood, lighting candles and cursing zero-tolerance COVID measures with some openly daring to chant, “Communist Party step down” and “Step down, Xi Jinping, step down.”
Most of the demonstrators were allowed to disperse by police on Saturday night, but several of them were arrested early on Sunday morning.
As a result of a new outbreak, Beijing into a de facto lockdown on Sunday as the demonstrations expanded to additional areas. At the famous Tsinghua University in Beijing, which also happens to be Xi’s alma school, hundreds of students gathered outside the main dining hall, holding blank pieces of paper to protest the increasing censorship and demand “freedom of speech.” It was a sight that hadn’t been witnessed on Chinese college campuses since the crackdown on Tiananmen Square in 1989.The blank-sheet protests were seen again near the Liangmaqiao diplomatic district, close to the U.S. and South Korean embassies in Beijing Sunday night, accompanied with cries of “no PCR tests, only freedom.”
Beijing released new rules on November 11 in an effort to enhance COVID measures and decrease the impact of its limitations. At first, it was interpreted as a sign that Beijing was getting ready to open up. However, widespread epidemics have forced several cities to shut down once more. The majority of local governments are in control of their own COVID enforcement, and since the officials’ careers are on the line if they handle an epidemic poorly, they tend to err on the side of tougher action, regardless of how it would affect the local population.
By Sunday night, several municipal governments were modifying their boundaries in real-time. As protesters gathered in Liangmaqiao, Beijing police claimed to have lifted lockdowns in 75 locations. They also announced new regulations for enforcement, including a ban on snap locks lasting more than 24 hours. Despite China’s record daily case numbers, which ran 39,906 cases Sunday without any new deaths, which are not particularly high by international standards, the Japanese investment bank Nomura estimates that more than 21.1% of China’s total GDP is under lockdown, comparable to the economic impact of Shanghai’s lockdown in the spring.
In some ways, China is a victim of its own prosperity. With just 5,232 reported COVID fatalities over almost three years, the zero-COVID policy clearly saved lives during the epidemic, but it also effectively cut off a large portion of the Chinese population from any kind of innate immunity.In the best-case scenario put forth by some health officials, Xi Jinping and the Chinese government must decide which would lead to more instability: loosening up and allowing a COVID “exit wave” to swiftly cause up to hundreds of thousands of deaths and overwhelm the national health system, or tolerating the whack-a-mole of still-sporadic and unorganised protests across the nation.
The answer is still on the side of zero-COVID for a nation that spends more on domestic public security than on its military. However, as the rage grows, many people think that time might not be on zero-side. COVID’s.
