In China yesterday there was a new record with almost 40,000 new corona infected, reports the Reuters news agency. The country’s authorities continue with their zero tolerance and very strict measures to limit the infection. Many Chinese are now tired of shutdowns and daily corona testing, and are now increasingly expressing their dissatisfaction. Unusual demands Reuters broadcasts a video from the big city of Shanghai last night where several hundred residents take part in a demonstration. MOOD CHANGE: Protesters in China’s most populous city Shanghai last night. They lit candles and laid flowers in memory of those who lost their lives in a fire in the city of Urumqi on Thursday. Photo: AP There, the demonstrators directed their anger at the country’s president and the Communist Party. – Get off, Xi Jinping, get off!, the participants shouted tactfully. They also demanded that the lockdown in Xinjiang province be lifted. In the city of Urumqi, ten people lost their lives in a fire in an apartment block on Thursday. On social media, many claim that the victims did not get out in time because of the corona measures. The authorities in the city reject this. HARD REACTIONS: The police attack protesters in the provincial capital of Urumqi in Xinjiang. Photo: VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS / Reuters According to the AP news agency, some residents have had the door to their homes locked with a chain. But the case has led to fury in many places in China. Several of the protests are solidarity demonstrations and in Shanghai people gathered in Urumqi Street. The street is named after the capital of Xinjiang. The protests continue in several places The demonstrators in Shanghai also demanded that the country’s Communist Party must give up power. Furthermore, they said that they want freedom and no more PCR tests. It is very rare for protests in China to be directed directly at the country’s political leadership in this way, because it can lead to long prison sentences. In the big city, the police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators who had gathered at midnight. IMPATIENT: Many Chinese are tired of the very strict corona measures. Here, people are queuing to be tested in Beijing. Photo: Andy Wong / AP Today there are reports that people are gathering again to demonstrate in Shanghai. This time a silent protest where people lined up at road junctions where they held up white or blank sheets. This morning in the hours before this, several hundred students gathered for a protest at the leading Tsinghua University in the capital Beijing. – We sang the national anthem and the International and shouted that “freedom will win”, says a student. In the city of Lanzhou in the northwestern part of the country, there were also disturbances yesterday, according to Reuters. There, residents are said to have knocked down tents and stalls that were used for corona testing. Declining trust in infection control Also in Beijing and at the Technical University in Nanjing, white blank sheets were held up. The white sheets are a protest against the gagging of freedom of expression and social debate. Tsinghua University is President Xin Ping’s own university and also the university that has educated most of the Communist Party’s top leaders. The protests that are now spreading to the campuses of several of China’s elite universities are particularly sensitive. The major upheavals and protests in China have often started as student uprisings. China’s top leaders will be particularly wary of whether they feel that the protest is starting to be about something more than strict infection control. DECLINING CONFIDENCE: From the demonstration in Shanghai last night. Corona fatigue is spreading in China. Photo: EVA RAMMELOO / Reuters Infection control has been practiced particularly strictly towards students. Many students in Beijing are locked up on campus or choose to go home as the vast majority of teaching is now digital. Despite four days of new infection records, up to 40,000 infected people are low in a country with 1.4 billion people. Confidence in the country’s infection control policy is declining. Three years into the pandemic, younger people are no longer afraid of infection. Corona fatigue is spreading and, with the exception of the very oldest, more people in China are demanding a more precise and sophisticated policy. A policy that does not lead to the closure of larger residential areas and districts in the event of minor outbreaks of infection. This has also been expressed in newspapers in China which are subject to government censorship.
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