People in the Chinese manufacturing hub of Guangzhou clashed with white hazmat-suited riot police this past Tuesday night (29 November), showed videos on social media, as frustration with stringent COVID-19 rules boiled over, three years into the pandemic.
The clashes in the southern city marked an escalation from protests in the commercial hub of Shanghai, capital Beijing and other cities over the weekend in mainland China’s biggest wave of civil disobedience since President Xi Jinping took power a decade ago.
Reuters reports that resentment is growing as China’s COVID-hit economy sputters after decades of breakneck growth, which formed the basis of an unwritten social contract between the ruling Communist Party and a population whose freedoms have been dramatically curtailed under Xi.
In one video posted on Twitter, dozens of riot police in all-white pandemic gear, holding shields over their heads, advanced in formation over what appeared to be torn down lockdown barriers as objects fly at them.
Police were later seen escorting a row of people in handcuffs to an unknown location. Another video clip showed people throwing objects at the police, while a third showed a tear gas canister landing in the middle of a small crowd on a narrow street, with people then running to escape the fumes.
Reuters verified that the videos were filmed in Guangzhou’s Haizhu district, the scene of COVID-related unrest two weeks ago.
The catalyst for the protests appears to have been an apartment fire in the western city of Urumqi that killed 10 people. Many speculated that COVID curbs in the city, parts of which had been under lockdown for 100 days, had hindered rescue and escape, which city officials denied.
The government of Guangzhou, a city hard-hit in the latest wave of infections, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China Dissent Monitor, run by US government-funded Freedom House, estimated at least 27 demonstrations took place across China from Saturday to Monday. Australia’s ASPI think tank estimated 43 protests in 22 cities.
Easing curbs
Guangzhou is a sprawling port city north of Hong Kong, where officials had announced they would allow close contacts of COVID cases to quarantine at home rather than being forced to go to shelters.
The decision broke with the usual practice under China’s zero-COVID policy.
In Zhengzhou, the site of a big Foxconn factory making Apple iPhones that has been the scene of worker unrest over COVID, officials announced the “orderly” resumption of businesses, including supermarkets, gyms and restaurants.
However, they also published a long list of buildings that would remain under lockdown. Hours before those announcements, national health officials said on Tuesday that China would respond to “urgent concerns” raised by the public and that COVID rules should be implemented more flexibly, according to each region’s conditions.
But while the easing of some measures, which comes as China posts daily record numbers of COVID cases, appears to be an attempt to appease the public, authorities have also begun to seek out those who have been at recent protests.
“Police came to my door to ask me about it all and get me to complete a written record,” a Beijing resident told Reuters yesterday (Wednesday 30 November).
Another resident said some friends who posted videos of protests on social media were taken to a police station and asked to sign a promise they “would not do that again”.
It was not clear how authorities identified the people they wanted questioned, nor how many such people authorities contacted.
Beijing’s Public Security Bureau did not comment.
‘Hostile forces'
In a statement that did not refer to the protests, the Communist Party’s top body in charge of law enforcement agencies said late on Tuesday that China would resolutely crack down on “the infiltration and sabotage activities of hostile forces”.
The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission also said “illegal and criminal acts that disrupt social order” would not be tolerated.
The foreign ministry has said rights and freedoms must be exercised within the law.
COVID has spread despite China largely isolating itself from the world and demanding significant sacrifices from hundreds of millions to comply with relentless testing and prolonged isolation.
While infections and death numbers are low by global standards, analysts say that a reopening before increasing vaccination rates could lead to widespread illness and deaths and overwhelm hospitals.
The lockdowns have hammered the economy, disrupting global supply chains and roiling financial markets.
During his tenure, Xi has overseen the quashing of dissent and expansion of a high-tech social surveillance system that has made protest more difficult, and riskier.
“What we object to is these restrictions on people's rights in the name of virus prevention, and the restrictions on individual freedom and people's livelihoods,” said Jason Sun, a college student in Shanghai.
Police have been asking people for their phones to check if they had virtual private networks (VPNs) and the Telegram app, which has been used by protesters, residents and social media users said. VPNs are illegal for most people in China, while the Telegram app is blocked from China’s internet.
Asked about the widespread anger over the zero-COVID policy, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said: “What you mentioned does not reflect what actually happened.
“We believe that with the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and cooperation and support of the people, our fight against COVID-19 will be successful.”
The backlash against COVID curbs is a setback for the country’s efforts to eradicate the virus, which is infecting record numbers after swathes of the population have sacrificed income, mobility and mental health to prevent it from spreading.
The zero-COVID policy has kept China’s official death toll in the thousands, against more than 1m in the US, but has come at the cost of confining many millions to long spells at home, bringing extensive disruption and damage to the world’s second-largest economy, reports Reuters.
Abandoning it would mean rolling back a policy championed by Xi. It would also risk overwhelming hospitals and lead to widespread illness and deaths in a country with hundreds of millions of elderly and low levels of immunity to COVID, experts say.
State media did not mention the protests, instead urging citizens in editorials to stick to COVID rules. Many analysts say China is unlikely to re-open before March or April, and needs an effective vaccination campaign before that.
Demonstrations have also been held in at least a dozen cities around the world in solidarity.
Reuters article – China tightens security after rare protests against COVID curbs (Open access)
Reuters article – COVID protests escalate in Guangzhou as China lockdown anger boils
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