Authorities in China's western Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city's draconian “zero-COVID” lockdown that had lasted more than three months.
Residents line up for COVID-19 tests in Beijing, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022. TAIPEI, Taiwan — Authorities in China's western Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi on Saturday after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city's draconian “zero-COVID” lockdown that had lasted more than three months.
Officials denied the accusations, saying there were no barricades in the building and that residents were permitted to leave. Police clamped down on dissenting voices, announcing the arrest of a 24-year-old woman for spreading “untrue information” about the death toll online. Given China's vast security apparatus, protests are risky anywhere in the country, but they are extraordinary in Xinjiang, which for years has been the target of a brutal security crackdown. A huge number of Uyghurs and other largely Muslim minorities have been swept into a vast network of camps and prisons,Most of the protesters visible in the videos were Han Chinese. A Uyghur woman living in Urumqi said it was because Uyghurs were too scared to take to the streets despite their rage.
Officials also triumphantly declared Saturday that they had basically achieved “societal zero-COVID," meaning that there was no more community spread and that new infections were being detected only in people already under health monitoring, such as those in a centralized quarantine facility. But support for “zero-COVID” has cratered in recent months, as tragedies sparked public anger. Last week, the Zhengzhou city government in the central province of Henan apologized for the death of a 4-month old baby. She died after a delay in receiving medical attention while suffering vomiting and diarrhea in quarantine at a hotel in Zhengzhou.
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Read more »