Residents of the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou clashed with law enforcement on Monday evening following mounting public frustration to forced mass-lockdowns and exasperation with China’s Zero-Covid policy.
Since October, a part of the metropolis, home to 12.6 million people (roughly equivalent to Los Angeles in the US), has been under quarantine due to a spike in reported cases. Specifically, the Haizhu district, home to 1.8 million people, has come under strict lockdown.
On Monday, Chinese central authorities decided to extend confinement until next Wednesday evening throughout the district. Videos uploaded online, and later confirmed by AFP, show hundreds of residents demonstrating in the streets, a rare sight under the authoritarian Chinese communist system.
Small groups of protestors broke down large plastic barriers installed to confine buildings and neighbourhoods. In other footage, protestors attack Chinese authorities wearing white personal protective equipment. “We don’t want any more tests!,” chanted demonstrators. Some threw objects at police.
🇨🇳🔥 — More videos of the rejection of the COVID Zero Policy, In the last 48 hours, riots and mass protests in #Guangzhou, mainland #China, in the heart of the Cantonese region of $Guangdong controlled by the #PRC. pic.twitter.com/zlTw7reLJb
— The informant (@theinformantofc) November 14, 2022
China has been frequently criticised for its zero-Covid policy, which has plunged millions into repeated lockdowns and has disrupted trade at some of the world’s busiest ports. Some accuse Chinese President Xi Jinping of using Covid legislation as an instrument of totalitarian control.
Following the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) massacre of pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989, wide-scale protest has all but disappeared from Chinese society. However, in the run up to the 2022 CCP Congress, rare protest action has begun to spring up in response to oppressive Covid-19 policy.
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In October, a lone protester unfurled banners in Beijing calling for the removal of “dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping” and a general strike. Despite attempts at censorship, the images quickly circulated around Chinese social media, striking a chord with many disgruntled Chinese citizens.
Chinese social media now regularly reshares distressing images from those confined in their homes, with footage showing Chinese citizens yelling out their windows in frustration in face of the CCP’s inflexible Covid policy.
Under current Chinese regulations, districts can be confined as soon as just a few cases appear. People living in these areas are then forbidden from travelling and face almost daily PCR and Antigen tests. Chinese citizens complain that these frequent lockdowns are hurting businesses, limiting access to vital healthcare, and causing acute food shortages.
