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 SHENZHEN - Crowds took to the streets in a stunning challenge to the government on Sunday, with protesters being pushed to the breaking point by China's strict COVID regulations in Shanghai. They demanded the removal of the nation's all-powerful leader and engaged in violent altercations with police.


Police forcibly removed the protesters demanding Xi Jinping's resignation and the end of the Chinese Communist Party's rule from China's financial center; however, hours later, people gathered there once more, and reports on social media suggested that protests also spread to at least seven other cities, including the capital of Beijing, and dozens of university campuses.

Large-scale protests are extremely uncommon in China, where it is common practise to restrict public expressions of opposition; but, a frontal rebuke of Xi, the nation's most powerful leader in decades, is unique.


China is the only major nation still working to halt COVID-19 transmission three years after the virus first appeared. Under its "zero COVID" policy, millions of people are frequently forced to stay inside for weeks at a time and are subject to nearly constant testing. Initial support for the measures to reduce deaths while other nations experienced devastating waves of infections was widespread, but in recent weeks, that support has started to dwindle.


Then, on Friday, an apartment building caught fire, killing 10, and many think that the prolonged lockdown caused their rescue to be delayed. The Chinese people's tolerance for the draconian measures appears to have reached breaking point, which led to a weekend of protests.


In Shanghai, which endured a disastrous lockdown in the spring during which people struggled to obtain groceries and medications and were forcibly taken into centralised quarantine, hundreds of protesters gathered late on Saturday.

One group of demonstrators carried candles, flowers, and signs in memory of those who perished in the fire to a roadway bearing the name of the city in far-western China where the fire occurred. Another demonstrator, who insisted on being anonymous, claimed to be more active, yelling slogans and singing the national anthem.

In a video, protesters can be heard yelling, "Xi Jinping, resign!"

The slogans, which The Associated Press heard in a footage of the demonstration, were "Xi Jinping! Resign now, CCP! Step aside! As head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, Xi is arguably China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. Some predict that he will try to hold onto power indefinitely.

The protester and a second individual, Zhao, who only provided his last name, confirmed the chanting. Both insisted on having their identities kept secret out of fear of being arrested or facing punishment.

The unidentified protester claimed that the atmosphere at the demonstration encouraged discussion of taboo subjects like the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, in which the Communist Party in power had instructed troops to fire on pro-democracy student demonstrators. Others demanded an official apology for the fatalities caused by the fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang. One native Xinjiang resident of the Uyghur ethnic group, who has been the target of a widespread security crackdown, shared his experiences with prejudice and police violence.

The protester, who said it was his first time participating, said: "Everyone thinks that Chinese people are afraid to come out and demonstrate, that they don't have any courage." Actually, I had this thought in my heart as well. However, when I arrived there, I discovered that everyone there was incredibly fearless due to the atmosphere.

In the early hours of Sunday, the picture changed from tranquil to aggressive. As they attempted to move people off the main street, hundreds of police officers surrounded the protesters and dispersed the first, more active group before moving in on the second. The protester claimed to have seen numerous people being dragged away by police and crammed into vans, but he was unable to identify them.

Zhao, the protester, claimed that two of his friends had been pepper sprayed as well as beating by police. He claimed that when he attempted to stop police from removing his friend, they stepped on his feet. He was left barefoot after misplacing his shoes during the protest.

Zhao reported that the following slogan was shouted by protesters: "(We) do not want PCR (tests), but want freedom."

Crowds gathered once more at the same location on Sunday afternoon and protested PCR tests once more. Police began pushing people while people stood and recorded it on camera.

A protest weekend is sparked by the deaths in an apartment fire in Urumqi.

A social media crowdsourced list revealed that there were protests at 50 universities as well. Videos of protesters fighting with police wearing white protective suits or tearing down barricades that had been used to separate neighbourhoods were posted on social media and claimed to have been shot in Nanjing in the east, Guangzhou in the south, Beijing in the north, and at least five other cities. All of the protests could not be independently verified by The Associated Press.

The nation's premier university, Tsinghua University, in Beijing, had a demonstration on Sunday afternoon in front of one of the cafeterias. According to a witness who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation and pictures of the demonstration viewed by the AP, three young women first stood there with a straightforward message of condolence for the victims of the Urumqi apartment fire.

Students sang the socialist anthem Internationale and shouted "freedom of speech." In addition to promising to hold a school-wide discussion, the deputy Communist Party secretary of the school showed up at the demonstration.

After widespread protests on Friday, some anti-virus restrictions were relaxed in two northwest Chinese cities where residents had been forced to stay inside their homes for up to four months.

State media reported that Urumqi, where the fire broke out, as well as the smaller city of Korla, were getting ready to reopen markets and other establishments in locations deemed to be at low risk of virus transmission as well as to resume bus, train, and airline service.