What triggered the protests in China and what tactics have been used?

Published

3 years ago

November 28, 2022

admin

People in China have been protesting over ongoing coronavirus measures as part of growing calls for freedom – and there have been unprecedented clashes with police.

Some observers view the demonstrations as the most significant and serious in China since the 1989 crackdown on student pro-democracy rallies in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

The size and spread of the protests in China is unusual with the days ahead remaining uncertain – and questions remain about how the authorities will deal with them if they continue to grow.

What has been happening in China?

Residents in some major cities have been taking to the streets in protest over the country’s restrictive coronavirus measures.

People have clashed with police and some have called for Xi Jinping to step down as president.

In Shanghai, police took away a busload of protesters and there were violent clashes in other places such as Wuhan.

The numbers of protesters have varied considerably across different cities, with as many as 1,000 gathering in some parts.

Small-scale vigils and protests have also been held in other parts of the world to show solidarity with the people in China – including in London, Paris, Tokyo and Sydney.

What triggered the protests?

Frustrations have been building for some time over the state’s zero-COVID policy, which has been imposed to tackle any outbreaks and has led to long spells of confinement at home for many millions of people.

Some counties have faced sudden lockdowns over a small number of infections, while in other cases individual shops have been closed after a reported infection.

Last week, a fire in Urumqi in the Xinjiang region killed 10 people who became trapped in their apartments in a building that had been in lockdown for around 100 days.

The disaster was partly blamed on people being prevented from escaping by lockdown measures – while city officials provoked more anger by appearing to blame the residents for the deaths.

It was the latest in a growing list of incidents.

In September, 27 people died in a bus crash while being taken to a quarantine centre in Guizhou, far exceeding the two reported COVID-related deaths in the province since the beginning of the pandemic.

Since President Xi assumed power a decade ago, authorities have tightened controls on civil society, the media and the internet.

The strict COVID measures have kept China’s death toll much lower than many other countries, but they have also damaged the world’s second-biggest economy.

Chinese officials say the measures must be maintained to save lives, especially among the elderly given their lower vaccination rates.

How many COVID infections are there in China?

There was a fifth straight daily record of 40,347 new infections on 27 November, of which 3,822 were symptomatic and 36,525 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday.

That compares with 39,791 new cases a day earlier – 3,709 symptomatic and 36,082 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

There were no deaths, compared with one the previous day, keeping fatalities at 5,233.

As of Sunday, the mainland has confirmed 311,624 cases with symptoms.

What other tactics are protesters using?

People on the streets, at universities and on social media have expressed their anger using blank paper, which is becoming a symbol of the movement.

Students at universities in cities including Nanjing and Beijing held up blank paper as part of a silent protest – a tactic mostly used to evade censorship or arrest.

In Shanghai, there were reports of crowds holding a candlelight vigil for the Urumqi victims while parading blank paper.

“The white paper represent everything we want to say but cannot say,” said Johnny, 26, who took part in a gathering in Beijing.

“I came here to pay respects to the victims of the fire – I really hope we can see an end to all of these COVID measures.

“We want to live a normal life again. We want to have dignity.”

What have other people been saying about the protests?

Summer Kay, 24, who works in the internet industry in Beijing, said: “The pandemic and the codes have brought us so much torture.

“And now there are more people becoming unemployed, and it’s becoming an ordeal for kids and the elderly to get medical attention.

“If we just remain silent, I think it will only get worse.

“Maybe tomorrow the police will find us based on the records, maybe some of us will be arrested on strange charges and disappear.”

Kay Huang, 28, was at a candlelight vigil in Beijing on Sunday and said: “I’m really touched especially when they’re singing and everything they say – we want rights, freedom and don’t give up. That’s powerful. That’s warm.

“I want to see Beijing going back to normal as a capital city. I want people to see people safe, and free and happy again, not to have so many negative thoughts.”

World

At least 60 killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza, health staff say

Published

6 hours ago

June 28, 2025

admin

At least 60 killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza, health staff say

At least 60 people have been killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza, health staff have said.

A dozen people were killed near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, along with eight more living in apartments, according to staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were brought.

Six others were killed in southern Gaza when a strike hit their tent in Muwasi, according to the hospital.

Follow latest: ‘Death to America’ chants in Tehran

The strikes, which began late on Friday and continued into Saturday morning, came as US President Donald Trump said there could be a ceasefire agreement within the next week.

“We’re working on Gaza and trying to get it taken care of,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.

Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, will arrive in Washington next week for talks on Gaza’s ceasefire, Iran and other subjects, an official told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The last ceasefire agreed back in mid-January ended in March.

The war in Gaza was sparked after Hamas launched its attack on Israel in October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 people.

Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with fewer than half of them still believed to be alive.

More than 56,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The UN has also warned that people in Gaza are “starving”, with Israel allowing a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May after blocking all food for more than two months.

Palestinians have been shot at and killed while on their way to get food at aid sites, according to Gaza’s health officials and witnesses.

Israel’s military said it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been harmed while approaching the sites.

World

Chants of ‘death to America’ at funeral for Iranian military commanders and scientists

Published

6 hours ago

June 28, 2025

admin

Chants of 'death to America' at funeral for Iranian military commanders and scientists

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Tehran to mourn top military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Iran’s 12-day war with Israel.

Iran’s state-run Press TV said the event – dubbed the “funeral procession of the Martyrs of Power” – was held for a total of 60 people, including four women and four children.

Follow live: Iran hits out at Trump’s ‘unacceptable’ remarks

It said at least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among the dead, including the head of the Revolutionary Guard General Hossein Salami and the head of the guard’s ballistic missile programme, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

Their coffins were driven on trucks into the Iranian capital’s Azadi Square adorned with their pictures as well as rose petals and flowers, as crowds waved Iranian flags.

Mourners dressed in black, while chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel” could be heard.

Attending the funeral were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures, including Ali Shamkhani who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

There was no immediate sign of the supreme leader in the state broadcast of the funeral.

Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said its war against Iran aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.

The US launched strikes on three nuclear enrichment sites in Iran, which Donald Trump said left them “obilterated”.

The Iranian government denies having a nuclear weapons programme and the UN nuclear watchdog, which carries out inspections in Iran, has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons programme in the country.

Over the almost two weeks of fighting, Israel claimed it killed around 30 Iranian commanders and 11 nuclear scientists, before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday.

According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side, 13 of whom were children and 49 were women.

Israel’s health ministry said 28 people were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.

World

Why critics believe Trump’s big win in Supreme Court is ‘terrifying step towards authoritarianism’

Published

6 hours ago

June 28, 2025

admin

Why critics believe Trump's big win in Supreme Court is 'terrifying step towards authoritarianism'

As the president himself said, this was a “giant” of a decision – a significant moment to end a week of whiplash-inducing news.

The decision by the US Supreme Court is a big win for President Donald Trump.

By a majority of 6-3, the highest court in the land has ruled that federal judges have been overreaching in their authority by blocking or freezing the executive orders issued by the president.

Over the last few months, a series of presidential actions by Trump have been blocked by injunctions issued by federal district judges.

The federal judges, branded “radical leftist lunatics” by the president, have ruled on numerous individual cases, most involving immigration.

They have then applied their rulings as nationwide injunctions – thus blocking the Trump administration’s policies.

“It was a grave threat to democracy frankly,” the president said at a hastily arranged news conference in the White House briefing room.

“Instead of merely ruling on the immediate case before them, these judges have attempted to dictate the law for the entire nation,” he said.

In simple terms, this ruling – from a Supreme Court weighted towards conservative judges – frees up the president to push on with his agenda, less opposed by the courts.

“This is such a big day,” the president said.

“It gives power back to people that should have it, including Congress, including the presidency, and it only takes bad power away from judges. It takes bad power, sick power and unfair power.

“And it’s really going to be… a very monumental decision.”

The country’s most senior member of the Democratic Party was to the point with his reaction to the ruling.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called it “an unprecedented and terrifying step toward authoritarianism, a grave danger to our democracy, and a predictable move from this extremist MAGA court”.

In a statement, Schumer wrote: “By weakening the power of district courts to check the presidency, the court is not defending the constitution – it’s defacing it.

“This ruling hands Donald Trump yet another green light in his crusade to unravel the foundations of American democracy.”

Federal power in the US is, constitutionally, split equally between the three branches of government – the executive branch (the presidency), the legislative branch (Congress) and the judiciary (the Supreme Court and other federal courts).

They are designed to ensure a separation of power and to ensure that no single branch becomes too powerful.

This ruling was prompted by a case brought over an executive order issued by President Trump on his inauguration day to end birthright citizenship – that constitutional right to be an American citizen if born here.

A federal judge froze the decision, ruling it to be in defiance of the 14th amendment of the constitution.

The Supreme Court has deferred its judgment on this particular case, instead ruling more broadly on the powers of the federal judges.

The court was divided along ideological lines, with conservatives in the majority and liberals in dissent.

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

In her dissent, liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote: “As I understand the concern, in this clash over the respective powers of two coordinate branches of government, the majority sees a power grab – but not by a presumably lawless executive choosing to act in a manner that flouts the plain text of the constitution.

“Instead, to the majority, the power-hungry actors are… (wait for it)… the district courts.”

Another liberal Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, described the majority ruling by her fellow justices as: “Nothing less than an open invitation for the government to bypass the constitution.”

Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who Trump appointed during his first term, shifting the balance of left-right power in the court, led this particular ruling.

Writing for the majority, she said: “When a court concludes that the executive branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too.”

The focus now for those who deplore this decision will be to apply ‘class action’ – to file lawsuits on behalf of a large group of people rather than applying a single case to the whole nation.

There is no question though that the president and his team will feel significantly emboldened to push through their policy agenda with fewer blocks and barriers.

The ruling ends a giddy week for the president.

Last Saturday he ordered the US military to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites. Within two days he had forced both Israel and Iran to a ceasefire.

By mid-week he was in The Hague for the NATO summit where the alliance members had agreed to his defence spending demands.

At an Oval Office event late on Friday, where he presided over the signing of a peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, he also hinted at a possible ceasefire “within a week” in Gaza.

A truly consequential week seems set to be followed by another.