Massive COVID demonstrations break out in Xinjiang, China, after a fatal fire.
Crowds shouted at hazmat-suited guards in China’s remote western Xinjiang region after a deadly fire sparked anger over the country’s extended COVID-19 lockdown. This came as new national infection records were set.
According to videos shared on Chinese social media on Friday night, crowds chanted “End the lockdown!” while marching down a street and pumping their fists. According to Reuters’ investigation, the video originated in Urumqi, the provincial capital of Xinjiang.
Videos showed demonstrators in a plaza singing the Chinese national anthem, which includes the line “Rise up, those who refuse to be slaves!”
Many of Urumqi’s 4 million residents have been told they cannot leave their homes for as long as 100 days, part of China’s policy to keep the vast Xinjiang region under some of the country’s longest lockdowns. Within the last two days, the city reported roughly one hundred new cases daily.
There are approximately 10 million Uyghurs living in Xinjiang. The mainly Muslim ethnic minority has long been accused by rights groups and Western governments of being subjected to forced labor in internment camps and other forms of mistreatment by Beijing. China refutes these allegations categorically.
Protests broke out in Urumqi on Friday after a fire in a high-rise building there claimed the lives of ten people on Thursday.
Authorities claimed that residents had been able to evacuate via the basement, but videos of rescue workers at work were widely shared on Chinese social media, leading many to speculate that residents were trapped and unable to get out in time.
On Saturday morning, officials in Urumqi unexpectedly called a press conference, during which they denied that COVID measures had impeded escape and rescue efforts but said they would investigate the matter further. Residents could have escaped the building more quickly if they had been more knowledgeable about fire safety, according to this source.
To assign fault to the victim
University of Chicago political scientist Dali Yang warned that this “blame-the-victim” mentality only serves to inflame the populace. “Public trust will just sink lower,” he told Reuters.
Users on China’s Weibo platform described the incident as a tragedy that sprang out of China’s insistence on sticking to its zero-COVID policy and something that could happen to anyone. Some lamented its similarities to the deadly September crash of a COVID quarantine bus.
“Is there not something we can reflect on to make some changes,” said an essay that went viral on WeChat on Friday, questioning the official narrative on the Urumqi apartment fire.
China defends President Xi Jinping’s signature zero-COVID policy as life-saving and necessary to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system. Officials have vowed to continue with it despite the growing public pushback and its mounting toll on the world’s second-biggest economy.
While the country recently tweaked its measures, shortening quarantines and taking other targeted steps, this coupled with rising cases has caused widespread confusion and uncertainty in big cities, including Beijing, where many residents are locked down at home.
China recorded 34,909 daily local cases, low by global standards but the third record in a row, with infections spreading to numerous cities, prompting widespread lockdowns and other curbs on movement and business.
Shanghai, China’s most populous city and financial hub, tightened testing requirements on Saturday for entering cultural venues such as museums and libraries, requiring people to present a negative COVID test taken within 48 hours, down from 72 hours earlier.
Beijing’s Chaoyang Park, popular with runners and picnickers, shut again after having briefly reopened.
