Beijing relaxed certain Covid-19 restrictions on Monday after nationwide weekend protests challenging CCP leadership, but party leaders are still clinging to their broader “zero-Covid” strategy nearly three years after the virus first emerged.
Beijing’s city government announced Monday it would stop blocking access to apartment compounds in which people have tested positive for Covid-19. That adjustment comes after an apartment fire in Urumqi, the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang, killed ten people and injured nine late last week. The incident triggered public outrage, as it was believed that mobility restrictions either trapped the residents or slowed the dispatch of emergency services.
“Passages must remain clear for medical transportation, emergency escapes and rescues,” Wang Daguang, a city official who deals with disease control said, according to the official China News Service, the Associated Press reported.
The Urumqi city government announced that public transportation will gradually resume service in the city and markets, restaurants, and banks will reopen in low-risk areas. Guangzhou, a region which has experienced a recent surge of Covid-19 infections, announced that some residents will not be subject to mass-testing to make efficient use of equipment supply.
On Saturday in Shanghai, a swarm of disgruntled citizens took to the streets and marched against President Xi Jinping’s rule. Some protesters held up blank sheets of paper, symbols for resistance to the Chinese government, and demanded Xi’s resignation. At multiple universities in Shanghai, Beijing, and Nanjing, crowds of students congregated to remember the victims of the apartment fire and denounce China’s draconian lockdown measures.
Protests continued on Sunday in Shanghai. Police arrested some participants and attempted to forcibly clear the crowds. Chinese officers reportedly tackled bystanders at an intersection around the original location of the protest, an AP journalist observed. The people targeted reportedly weren’t shouting slogans or actively antagonizing the government.
PHOTOS: China Covid Protests
BBC reporter Edward Lawrence was reportedly beaten and arrested while covering the demonstrations in Shanghai. Police detained him for several hours on the grounds that they were protecting him from Covid-19 infection. The journalist was later released.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that Lawrence concealed his press identity in violation of Chinese law.
“Foreign journalists need to consciously follow Chinese laws and regulations,” spokesman Zhao Lijian said, according to the AP.
On Monday, the number of Covid-19 cases in the country increased, providing justification for the regime to impose more lockdowns in furtherance of its zero-Covid policy. However, China’s government has signaled a willingness to roll back some minor rules that aren’t advancing its Covid-19 control objectives.
Earlier in November, the government unveiled “20 measures” to reduce quarantine time for international travel by two days, slightly deescalate contact tracing, lower the number of regional risk designations, and make Covid-19 controls more targeted and effective, CNBC reported.