Heavy police force demonstrates power to deter COVID-19 lockdown protests in China

Chinese police have showcased the force across the country in order to suppress further protests against the government’s rigid zero-Covid policies, covid lockdown and tackle what have become the most extraordinary acts in the country for decades. A Dozen Chinese police cars lined the streets around a central Beijing subway station and patrolled surrounding blocks on November 28 (evening) and plain-clothed and uniformed officers were stopping and questioning passersby at the station exits. 

Protests against Covid lockdown 

The streets of China are barricaded by the authorities where the demonstrators had gathered for the past two nights. As per the footage available on social media and some people who disagree to identify themselves, a heavy police presence lined the city’s Middle Urumqi Road. According to the AP, demonstrators are seen holding up blank sheets of paper in Kunming and were later taken away by police.

One of the elite universities of China, Tsinghua University, also saw a large protest on November 27, which was later suppressed by the school authorities as they announced that free buses will be provided to help students get home early for the holidays which was greeted with some skepticism, given the fact that the term is not over yet. One of the Weibo online users said, “The school is afraid that passionate youths will make trouble, so the students are given an early holiday,” reported The Guardian. Another Weibo user said, “They are afraid of the student movement.” 

A BBC journalist, Edward Lawrence was also arrested, detained, and beaten by the Chinese police on Sunday while covering China's protest against the Covid Lockdown stringent rules. Even the people who filmed the aggression of Chinese authorities were forced to delete photos and videos. Since November 25, a wave of demonstrations has spread in multiple cities after the death of ten people in a building fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang. The people blamed the lockdown for the deaths as its been more than three months of Covid lockdown which has not been lifted yet by the Chinese government. 

(Image source: AP)