China eases some COVID restrictions after protests

Chinese authorities eased some COVID-19 restrictions Monday but affirmed the country’s “zero COVID” strategy after protests in at least eight major cities this weekend. The government has not commented directly on the protests, but political analysts such as Ho-Fung Hung at Johns Hopkins University say the protests are some of the biggest shows of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades. Some protesters even called for the resignation of President Xi Jinping. Police broke up protests Friday and Saturday, but many people returned Sunday. Chinese police have detained dozens of protesters and there are reports of police brutality. The police beat and later released a British Broadcasting Corp. reporter, the news agency said. A Chinese official said the BBC reporter didn’t follow rules for identifying himself. 

What started the protests? A fire Thursday night started at an apartment compound where infections had been found in the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi. Ten people died in the fire and nine were injured. Protesters claimed anti-virus controls like locked doors trapped victims inside. But city officials said that the fire escape doors were not locked and that some victims were just too weak to escape. 

Dig deeper: Read Erica Kwong’s report in World Tour on China’s COVID-19 conundrum.