Anti-government protests in China ended on Monday. Dozens of security forces patrolled where civilians had left blank sheets of paper over the weekend. Among other things, they checked the mobile phones of passers-by.
It was checked whether the Telegram app blocked in China or banned VPN software was installed on the mobile phones. Although no more protesters were seen in Beijing and Shanghai, the weekend protests are still having an impact. In downtown Shanghai, for example, security forces are cordoning off some streets with metal bars to prevent gatherings. Shops and cafes have been asked to close, an employee told Reuters news agency.
markets pressed
However, the events not only have a negative impact on local companies, but also on the stock exchanges in China and the stock and commodity markets in Europe and the US. For example, the price of oil and copper fell on Monday. As reported, the protests were against the government’s zero-Covid policy, which mainly relies on relatively long and strict lockdowns. According to eyewitnesses and unconfirmed video footage, President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party are among those criticized. Public anti-government protests are rare in China as there are surveillance measures in public spaces.
Since the weekend, numerous demonstrators have been arrested, including several foreign journalists. They have reported and are now making allegations against the police. “They disrupted every interview we gave and prevented our live coverage for the Tagesschau,” Tamara Anthony, studio manager of Beijing’s ARD television studio, wrote on Twitter.
Observer: Political system not threatened
Dissatisfaction with the government’s zero-Covid policy has been growing for months. While observers do not view the protests as a threat to the communist leadership, they predict troubled times. “The demonstrations do not pose a direct threat to the existing political order. But they do mean that the current covid policy mix is no longer politically sustainable,” said Gavekal Dragonomics analysts. The question now is how things will continue in the country after the Corona measures.
Proponents of China’s corona policy argue that the number of deaths during the pandemic would have been higher without appropriate measures. The objection, however, is that the population of China now has relatively little immunity to the corona virus. Authorities recently reported more than 40,000 new infections (China has a population of more than 1.4 billion, note), the highest number since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Source: Krone
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