The strict anti-covid measures imposed by the Chinese government are drawing the ire of citizens in the city of Guangzhou, one of the largest in the country, where a crowd rioted and took to the streets to protest against the confinement on Monday by the night, according to videos published on social networks.
In several recordings, hundreds of protesters can be seen marching through the streets and breaking down police barriers in the Haizhu district, which has been confined since the end of last month. In another recording, a group of people overturns a police car. another video shows a group of people destroying a checkpoint to carry out contagion tests.
The demonstrations took place in several "urban villages", mainly in the poorest neighborhoods, where migrant workers live, reports the Hong Kong Economic Journal. The local government sent several police vehicles to the protests, according to this information.
Chinese citizens are increasingly upset after nearly three years of draconian social restrictions under President Xi Jinping's covid zero policy. Control measures that show no signs of abating, despite the fact that the authorities have eased some restrictions, such as shortening the mandatory quarantine period for travelers arriving in the country or eliminating a system that penalizes airlines for transporting infected passengers. . Food shortages and difficulty in receiving medical attention are some of the biggest complaints of those who are confined to their homes.
On Chinese social networks Weibo and WeChat, where discussions are often censored to control public opinion, few posts about the protests can be found. On Tuesday morning, hashtags such as "Guangzhou Haizhu District riots" or "Haizhu riots" were still visible, but previously readable posts had disappeared.
On Monday, Guangzhou locked down another two districts, Panyu and Liwan, as daily infections rose to 5,124. Huang Kunming, head of the communist party in Guangdong, the province that includes Guangzhou, has ordered public officials to eliminate the virus "as soon as possible," the newspaper reported, citing an internal meeting.
China yesterday reported more than 17,000 new cases of covid, the highest number since the end of April. While Guangzhou accounts for most of them, the southwestern city of Chongqing also saw an increase of 2,948 cases.
