From The Economist this morning, but notably in very few American mainstream outlets:
FROM URUMQI in the north-west to Shanghai in the east, demonstrations and protests have rocked China in recent days. They have varied in size, tenor and composition, but all have been united by one theme: demands for an end to the harsh lockdowns and arbitrary controls of the country’s “zero-covid” campaign. Taken together, they represent a broad-based and diverse bellow of frustration of a sort very rarely heard in China. Though not all protests are explicitly political, they are an unmistakable rebuke for President Xi Jinping, hailed by state media as “commander in chief of the people’s war against covid”.
Just how bad is it?
Many people are increasingly fed up with that war. The latest trigger came on November 24th, when a fire at an apartment block in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang region, killed at least ten people and injured nine others. Local residents claimed that doorways and fire exits in the building were sealed to control covid.
It’s remarkable that the American press hasn’t been covering this nearly as much as the story warrants.
