“No covid tests, we want to eat!”

Peking. Hundreds of Beijingers braved the cold yesterday, November 27, at night and responded to the call to demonstrate that was spreading through social networks, in a silent rally for the victims of a fire and also against the government’s anti-covid policies.

Encouraged by the weariness they feel due to the sanitary restrictions, the participants gathered on the banks of the Liangma River, at the end of a day marked by other similar marches held in various parts of the country.

“No covid tests, we want to eat!” Shouted the protesters, some waving white paper, alluding to censorship, and others lighting candles on an improvised altar, on which bouquets of flowers were also placed.

A sheet of paper read: “for the victims who died in the fire in Urumqi on November 24.”

The fire, which occurred in the capital of the province of Xinjiang (northwest), left 10 dead and accentuated popular discontent that has been growing in recent months against the strict “zero covid” policy imposed by the authorities.

The authors of numerous publications circulating on social networks blamed the measures adopted against Covid-19 for having aggravated the tragedy, since the rescue efforts were hampered by vehicles that had been parked for weeks, due to confinement, in the strait alley where the burned building is located.

“We are all Xinjiang people!” shouted some protesters in Beijing.

The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China since President Xi Jinping took power a decade ago, as frustration mounts over his zero-Covid policy nearly three years into the pandemic.

no science

“I’m here because I love my country, but I don’t love my government… I want to be able to go out freely, but I can’t. Our Covid-19 policy is a game and not based on science or reality,” said one protester in the financial center named Shaun Xiao.

Protesters also took to the streets yesterday in the cities of Wuhan and Chengdu. In Beijing, small gatherings held peaceful vigils, while students from numerous university campuses across China gathered to demonstrate over the weekend.

Some agents infiltrated the crowd to film the participants, gathered on the banks of the Liangma River, which runs through one of the most populated neighborhoods in Beijing.