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

Published

2 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

‘The capital is under attack’: Russian drones launched over Kyiv after Moscow targeted

Published

9 hours ago

May 25, 2025

admin

'The capital is under attack': Russian drones launched over Kyiv after Moscow targeted

Russia has launched a “massive” drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital overnight, after Moscow itself was targeted.

Amid flailing peace talks, the Kremlin’s nightly attacks on Ukraine continued.

Ukraine war – follow the latest updates

A large-scale Russian attack through the night into Sunday injured at least 11 in Kyiv and killed three people in towns surrounding the capital.

There were attacks elsewhere as well, including drone strikes in Mykolaiv, where a residential building was hit.

‘Massive’ attack

In Kyiv, the city’s administration warned “the night will be difficult”, as people were urged to remain in shelters.

The city’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko described it as a “massive” attack.

He said: “Explosions in the city. Air defence forces are working. The capital is under attack by enemy UAVs. Do not neglect your safety! Stay in shelters!”

It came after at least 15 people were injured in attacks the night prior.

Russia claimed it also faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday, and that it intercepted and destroyed around 100 of them near Moscow and across Russia’s central and southern regions.

Russia ‘dragging out the war’

Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine continued a prisoner exchange, marking a rare moment of cooperation in the war.

Amid the most recent attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his calls for sanctions on Russia.

Russia “fills each day with horror and murder” and is “simply dragging out the war”, he said.

“All of this demands a response – a strong response from the United States, from Europe, and from everyone in the world who wants this war to end,” Mr Zelenskyy added.

Every day “gives new grounds for sanctions against Russia”, he said, and each day without pressure proves the “war will continue”.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is ready for “any form of diplomacy that delivers real results”.

World

Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

Published

1 day ago

May 24, 2025

admin

Nine of Gazan doctor's 10 children killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.

Warning: This article contains details of child deaths

Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.

Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.

Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.

In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.

The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.

“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.

“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”

British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack

Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.

Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.

The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.

Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.

‘No political or military connections’

Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.

“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”

He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”

Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.

Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

World

UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

Published

2 days ago

May 24, 2025

admin

UN's Antonio Guterres condemns 'teaspoon' of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes

The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.

He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.

Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.

The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.

Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.

Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.

Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.

The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.

The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.

The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.

But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.

Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.

The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.