Hundreds of demonstrators protest in China against the ‘COVID Zero’ policy implemented by Xi Jinping in the country and the Communist Party after ten people died in a fire in a confined area, where some claim that emergency responders were unable to gain access in time due to sanitary restrictions.
Although Chinese authorities have been quick to deny it, protests have been reported throughout Saturday and early Sunday morning. In Shanghai, hundreds of university students have lit candles to mourn the dead and have raised blank sheets of paper, a usual symbol in protests against censorship.
Several videos posted on social networks show how some residents are defying the strict policy against the coronavirus, movements that some witnesses interviewed by CNN described as «unprecedented».
The U.S. network collects that in the images you can hear groups of students chanting slogans such as «Resign, Xi Jinping! Retreat, Communist Party!». «I don’t want the Covid test, I want freedom!» and «I don’t want dictatorship, I want democracy!», they added.
In other videos, groups of people sing the Chinese national anthem and The Internationale, from the socialist movement, while carrying banners protesting Beijing’s strict measures.
In the capital there have also been protests in which, according to a witness told CNN, security agents have tried to cover the banners using jackets and covering the slogans with black paint.
Also in the eastern city of Nanjing, dozens of students from the University of Communication have gathered to commemorate the dead holding blank sheets of paper. In the videos, translates the U.S. network, an official threatens: «They will pay for what they have done today».
At the same time, the number of coronavirus infections is at a record high in the country, with more than 40,000 people infected.
