‘Forces With Ulterior Motives’: China On Protests Against Zero-COVID Policy, Restrictions Eased

New Delhi: After crowds demanded Chinese President Xi Jinping’s resignation during protests against restrictions that force millions of people to stay in their homes, authorities relaxed anti-virus regulations in a few locations but upheld its strict “zero-COVID” strategy on Monday.

Though the government made no comment on the protests or criticism of Xi, the most widespread display of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades, it announced that it would no longer set up gates to block access to apartment compounds where infections are found, reported news agency the Associated Press.

ALSO READ: Anti-Lockdown Protests Spread Across China Amid Growing Anger At Zero-Covid Strategy

Meanwhile, in response to the deadly fire last week that killed 10 people and set off the protests following angry questions about whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other anti-virus controls, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, on social media, there are forces with ulterior motives that relate this fire with the local response to Covid-19,” as reported by news agency AFP.

On Sunday night, at least 400 people gathered on the banks of a river in the capital Beijing for several hours, with some shouting: “We are all Xinjiang people! Go Chinese people!”

Police arrested two people at the Shanghai protest site on Monday, the agency informed. The locals in Beijing continued to protest early into Monday morning in a rare outpouring of public anger against the state. The police were also seen pulling people aside and ordering them to delete photos on their phones.

VIDEO: Protests in Shanghai as anger mounts over China’s zero-Covid policy.

Video taken by an eyewitness in Shanghai on Sunday shows angry crowds taking to the streets calling for an end to lockdowns, as China grapples with mounting public protests against its zero-Covid policy pic.twitter.com/dezRrAIoeA

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) November 28, 2022

The protests in China intensified with hundreds of people taking to the streets against the country’s zero-Covid policy. The protesters demand the lifting of the lockdown and the release of arrested people. Demonstrations that have erupted across the cities have become the biggest test for President Xi Jinping since he secured a historic third term in power.

ALSO READ: ‘Xi Jinping Step Down!’: Protesters Chant In China, BBC Says Its Journalist ‘Beaten, Arrested’ By Police

Several videos posted on social media, taken in Nanjing in the east, Guangzhou in the south and at least five other cities, showed protesters tussling with police in white protective suits or dismantling barricades used to seal off neighborhoods. But the posts were deleted immediately on China’s social media, as China’s Communist Party commonly does to suppress criticism, the Associated Press reported.

“Zero COVID,” which aims to isolate every infected person, has helped keep China’s case numbers lower than those of the United States and other major countries. But people in some areas have been confined at home for up to four months and say they lack enough food supplies.