Massive demonstrations against China’s COVID-19 lockdown policies could threaten Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s rule.
REUTERS/Tyrone SiuChina's strict COVID-19 policies have kept numbers down, but at the costs of citizens' personal freedom.REUTERS/Thomas PeterThe policy has kept case numbers — as well as deaths — down. China has reported a mere 5,232 deaths from COVID-19, against the US count of 1.09 million.
But tolerance for the strict controls has waned, with people in some regions confined to their homes for up to four months. Beijing had indicated a willingness to relax some of the zero-COVID policies — though cases are once again on the rise. The lockdown protests are the largest China has seen since 1989, when the Chinese Communist Party violently quashed pro-democracy demonstrators at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.China has reported a mere 5,232 deaths from the coronavirus.But videos from Sunday’s protests in Shanghai showed the violent arrest of a BBC reporter, who the British broadcaster said was kicked and beaten by police before being detained for “several hours.” after trying to stop the police from beating me.
Chinese officials claimed Lawrence was arrested “for his own good in case he caught COVID from the crowd,” the BBC said, adding: “We do not consider this a credible explanation.”
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