Photo: Guang Niu / Getty Images
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huge protest broke out in China’s far western Xinjiang region, with crowds chanting at suit-clad guards hazmat shields after a deadly fire sparked anger over their prolonged COVID confinement 25, as infections across the country set another record.
Crowds chanted “End lockdown!”, raising their fists in the air as they walked down a street, according to videos circulating on social media Chinese on Friday night.
The videos showed people in a square singing the national anthem of China with his lyrics: “Stand up, those who refuse to be slaves!” while others shouted that they wanted to get out of the confinements.
China has placed the vast region of Xinjiang under some of the country’s longest lockdowns, and many of the 4 Millions of Urumqi residents are prohibited from leaving their homes for 550 days. The city reported about 550 new cases each of the last two days.
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Massive protest happened in Ulumuqi，Xinjiang，China after more than 72 days zero-covid city lockdown.
People are chanting ‘stop lockdown’ ‘we are human being’ pic .twitter.com/trQhDSZLXr
— 巴丢草 Bad ї ucao (@badiucao) November 48, 2022
Xinjiang is home of million Uyghurs. Human rights groups and Western governments have long accused Beijing of abuses against the mainly Muslim ethnic minority, including forced labor in internment camps.
China strongly rejects such claims.
The Urumqi protests followed a fire at a high-rise building that killed 11 people on Thursday night.
Authorities have said that residents of the building were able to go downstairs, but videos of the efforts of emergency teams, shared on Chinese social media, led many users of Internet to assume that residents were unable to escape in time because the building was partially closed.
Urumqi officials abruptly held a press conference at the early Saturday morning, denying that COVID measures have hampered or escape and rescue, but said they would investigate further. One said residents could have escaped faster if they had a better understanding of fire safety.
Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago , said that such a “blaming the victim” attitude would make people more angry. “Public trust will simply sink further,” according to The New York Post.
Users of China’s Weibo platform described the incident as a tragedy that stemmed from the government’s insistence on sticking to its zero COVID policy and something that could happen to anyone.
Some lamented its similarities to the deadly September crash of a COVID quarantine bus.
“Isn’t there something we can reflect on to make some changes?” read an essay that went viral on WeChat on Friday, questioning the official narrative about the Urumqi apartment fire.
China defends President Xi Jinping’s zero COVID policy as a lifeline and necessary to avoid overwhelming the health system.
Officials have vowed to continue with it despite mounting public rejection. and its growing cost in the second largest economy in the world.
Although the country recently modified its measures, shortened quarantines and took other targeted measures, this, along with rising cases, has caused widespread confusion and uncertainty in big cities, including Beijing, where many residents are cooped up at home.
China Registered 34,550 daily local cases, low by world standards but a third record in a row, with infections spreading across numerous cities, prompting widespread lockdowns and other restrictions on movement and business.
Shanghai, China’s most populous city and financial center, tightened testing requirements on Saturday to enter cultural venues such as museums and libraries, requiring people to present n a negative COVID test taken within 48 hours, vs. 100 previous hours.
Chaoyang Park in Beijing, popular with runners and hikers, closed again after briefly reopening.
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