Protests over Covid controls of Chinese gov't intensify

 PUBLIC DEFIANCE. In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, demonstrators stand by protest signs in Shanghai on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022. Protests against China’s restrictive Covid measures appeared in a number of cities Saturday night, in displays of public defiance fanned by anger over a deadly fire in the western Xinjiang region.
PUBLIC DEFIANCE. In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, demonstrators stand by protest signs in Shanghai on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022. Protests against China’s restrictive Covid measures appeared in a number of cities Saturday night, in displays of public defiance fanned by anger over a deadly fire in the western Xinjiang region.

BEIJING — Protests against China’s pervasive anti-virus controls that have confined millions of people to their homes spread to Shanghai and other cities after complaints they might have worsened the death toll in an apartment fire in the northwest.

Shanghai police used pepper spray against about 300 protesters, according to a witness. They gathered Saturday night, Nov. 26, 2022, to mourn the deaths of at least 10 people in an apartment fire last week in Urumqi in the Xinjiang region in the northwest.

Videos posted on social media that said they were filmed in Nanjing in the east, Guangzhou in the south and at least five other cities showed protesters tussling with police in white protective suits or dismantling barricades used to seal off neighborhoods. Witnesses said a protest occurred in Urumqi, but The Associated Press was unable to confirm details of other videos.

President Xi Jinping’s government faces mounting anger at its “zero-Covid” policy that has shut down access to areas throughout China in an attempt to isolate every case at a time when other governments are easing controls and trying to live with the virus.

That has kept China’s infection rate lower than the United States and other countries. But the ruling Communist Party faces growing complaints about the economic and human cost as businesses close and families are isolated for weeks with limited access to food and medicine.

Some protesters were shown in videos shouting for Xi to step down or the ruling party to give up power.

Party leaders promised last month to make restrictions less disruptive by easing quarantine and other rules but said they were sticking to “zero-Covid.”

Meanwhile, an upsurge in infections that pushed daily cases above 30,000 for the first time has led local authorities to impose restrictions residents complain exceed what is allowed by the national government.

The fire deaths in Urumqi triggered an outpouring of angry questions online about whether firefighters who needed three hours to extinguish the blaze or victims trying to escape might have been obstructed by locked doors or other controls.

Authorities denied that, but the disaster became a focal point for public anger about anti-disease restrictions, ruling party propaganda and censorship.

Xi has defended the “zero-Covid” policy as an example of the superiority of the Chinese system compared with the United States and other Western countries, which politicized the use of face masks and had difficulties enacting widespread lockdowns.

But support for “zero-Covid” has cratered in recent months, as tragedies sparked public anger.

Last week, the government of the central city of Zhengzhou apologized for the death of a four-month-old girl who was in quarantine. Her father said his efforts to take her to a hospital were delayed after ambulance workers balked at helping them because he tested positive for the virus. (AP)

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