Huge protest in China against Lockdown; Covid cases at record high
HY News
28 November, 2022 11:30 am IST
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Thousands of people took to the streets of China's Wuhan – the city where the deadly coronavirus pandemic originated in 2019 – as the anti-Covid lockdown protests gained momentum for the third day on Sunday. A wave of civil disobedience spread across major cities like Beijing and Shanghai as public anger grew against the hardline norms to abide by China's zero-Covid policy.
China has been reporting yet another worrying surge in Covid cases over the past few days, including a 24-hour record of nearly 40,000 on Saturday - prompting authorities to impose the restrictions.
The protests were triggered by a fire at a residential high-rise building in the city of Urumqi - the capital of the northwest Xinjiang region - that killed 10 people. Social media users shared videos of the incident accusing the Chinese authorities that the stringent lockdown was a factor in the death toll.
Over the weekend, students on numerous university campuses around China gathered with blank sheets to protest against the lockdowns. Meanwhile, police kept a heavy presence across Shanghai and other cities where demonstrations were witnessed.
Media reports said a large section of farmers in China has taken to destroying their crops, blaming the strict COVID-19 curbs for not letting them sell their crops. The farmers’ move has sparked concerns of food security. Because travel is banned through several rural areas in the country, farmers are struggle to sell their harvest, local media reported. Reports say that farmers in the Chinese provinces of Henan, Gansu, Shandong and Hebei are bulldozing vegetable fields in order to sow seeds for the next crop.
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