“It was not fear. I felt that my blood was boiling.”
QUICK FACTS:
- Protesters in Shanghai have demanded the end to COVID-19 lockdowns following widespread outrage over the death of at least 10 in an apartment building fire.
- The fire took place in Uramqi Xingiang and conflicting reports about the mortality rate indicate that as many as 40 citizens trapped in their homes might have died in the fire.
- Reports from locals indicated that at least 100 police were blocking off roads and as many as a dozen were beating one female protester.
- One participant described the scene in Shanghai as “shocking,” saying that some citizens got into scuffles with police, some were beaten, and some were taken away in police vehicles.
- “I was very moved. The people have been suppressed for too long. It was not fear. I felt that my blood was boiling,” she said. “I felt that I was witnessing history in the making. I had goosebumps.”
LOCAL AUTHORITIES LASHED OUT AGAINST JOURNALIST:
- As part of the Chinese Communist Party police’s suppression of citizens’ outrage, a journalist was detained and beaten.
- BBC journalist Ed Lawrence was arrested while covering Shanghai’s anti-lockdown protests Sunday night as thousands came out across several large cities to push back against the zero-COVID policies.
BACKGROUND:
- China has leveraged its surveillance system to target anti-lockdown protesters using mobile phone data to track its citizens.
- The country’s authoritarian government has been cracking down on citizens demonstrating against their COVID policies.
- Backlash from authorities has caused more than a dozen individuals to reach out to an attorney about action being taken by the CCP against them.
