Shanghai hit by protests as anger at zero-COVID and Urumqi fire spreads across China

Protests against China's heavy COVID-19 curbs have spread to more cities, including financial hub Shanghai, with a fresh wave of anger sparked by a deadly fire in the country's far west.

The fire on Thursday that killed 10 people in a high-rise building in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang region, sparked widespread public anger, with many internet users suggesting residents could not escape because the building was partially locked down, which city officials denied.

The fire has fuelled a wave of civil disobedience unprecedented in mainland China since Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.

In Shanghai, China's most populous city, residents gathered on Saturday night at Wulumuqi Road — named after Urumqi — for a candlelit vigil which turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday.

As a large group of police looked on, the crowd held up blank sheets of paper, a protest symbol against censorship.

Later on, they shouted, "lift lockdown for Urumqi, lift lockdown for Xinjiang, lift lockdown for all of China!", according to social media footage.

At another point, a large group began shouting, "Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping", according to witnesses and videos, in a rare public protest against the Chinese leadership.

Later on Sunday, police kept a heavy presence on Wulumuqi Road and cordoned off surrounding streets, making an arrest that triggered protests from onlookers, according to unverified videos seen by Reuters.

Urumqi tragedy sparks nationwide anger

Candlelit vigils for the Urumqi victims took place in universities in cities such as Nanjing and Beijing, with students staging silent protests by holding up blank sheets of paper.

At Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, dozens of people held a peaceful protest against COVID restrictions during which they sang the national anthem, according to images and videos posted on social media.

In one video, which Reuters was unable to verify, a Tsinghua university student called on a cheering crowd to speak out.

"As a Tsinghua university student, I will regret it for all my life."

One student who saw the Tsinghua protest described to Reuters feeling taken aback by the protest at one China's most elite universities, and Mr Xi's alma mater.

Internet users showed solidarity by posting blank white squares on their WeChat timelines or on Weibo.

By Sunday morning, the hashtag "white paper exercise" had been blocked on Weibo.

Videos from Shanghai showed crowds facing dozens of police and calling out chants including: "Serve the people", "We don't want health codes" and "We want freedom".

Strict lockdowns rules called to question

On Friday night, crowds took to the streets of Urumqi, chanting "End the lockdown!" and pumping their fists in the air after the deadly fire, according to videos circulated on Chinese social media.

Many of Urumqi's 4 million residents have been under some of the country's longest lockdowns, barred from leaving their homes for as long as 100 days.

In Beijing, 2,700 km away, some residents under lockdown staged small protests or confronted local officials on Saturday over movement restrictions, with some successfully pressuring them into lifting the curbs ahead of a schedule.

A video shared with Reuters showed Beijing residents in an unidentifiable part of the capital marching around an open-air car park on Saturday, shouting "End the lockdown!"

Other cities that have seen public dissent include Lanzhou in the north-west where residents on Saturday upturned COVID staff tents and smashed testing booths, posts on social media showed.

Protesters said they were put under lockdown even though no one had tested positive.

In the central city of Wuhan, where the pandemic began three years ago, hundreds of residents took to the streets on Sunday, smashing through metal barricades, overturning COVID testing tents and demanding an end to lockdowns, according to videos on social media that could not be independently verified.

Shanghai's 25 million people were put under lockdown for two months earlier this year, an ordeal that provoked anger and protest.

Chinese authorities have since then sought to be more targeted in their COVID curbs, but that effort has been challenged by a surge in infections as China faces its first winter with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Lockdowns triggered by COVID surge

China is battling a surge in infections that has prompted lockdowns and other restrictions in cities across the country, as the government adheres to a zero-COVID policy even while much of the world tries to coexist with the coronavirus.

While low by global standards, China's case numbers have hit record highs for days, with nearly 40,000 new infections reported by health authorities on Sunday for the previous day.

China defends Mr Xi's signature zero-COVID policy as life-saving and necessary to prevent the healthcare system being overwhelmed.

Officials have vowed to continue with it despite the growing public pushback and its mounting toll on the world's second-biggest economy.

Protests and defiance are rare

Widespread public protest is extremely rare in China, where room for dissent has been all but eliminated under Mr Xi, forcing people mostly to vent on social media, where they play cat-and-mouse with censors.

Frustration is boiling just over a month after Mr Xi secured a third term at the helm of China's Communist Party.

"This will put serious pressure on the party to respond," said Dan Mattingly, assistant professor of political science at Yale University.

Still, he said, the unrest is far from that seen in 1989, when protests culminated in the bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square.

He added that as long as Mr Xi had China's elite and the military on his side, he would not face any meaningful risk to his hold on power.

Reuters