In China, there are again clashes between demonstrators and police during protests against corona measures. Objects were thrown at police officers in Guangzhou city on Wednesday night, according to eyewitnesses and video footage. There were also several arrests. China’s leaders had previously threatened to quell new unrest. Protesters’ anger has focused on the zero-Covid policy and the lockdowns that come with it. Beijing and Shanghai have also been hit by protests in recent days.
In Guangzhou, people also took to the streets at night, but security forces advanced in a chain against the demonstrators. Video posted online showed police officers being thrown at them on a street in Haizhu district, shattering glass on the ground next to them. People screamed and later nearly a dozen men were led away with their hands tied. The majority of corona cases in the city were reported in the district with 1.8 million inhabitants. Large parts of Haizhu have been in lockdown since late October.
China wants to crack down on enemy forces
Meanwhile, the Communist Party’s Politics and Law Commission blamed “hostile” elements for the disturbance of public order, state media reported. “It is necessary to resolve conflicts and disputes in a timely manner and help deal with people’s practical problems,” said the Xinhua News Agency. “By law, we must crack down on infiltration and sabotage by enemy forces.” “Criminal actions disrupting social order” must also be prosecuted and general social stability effectively maintained.
The statement did not directly address the weekend’s protests against rigorous zero-Covid measures such as lockdowns, enforced quarantines and mass testing. But the former editor-in-chief of the party newspaper “Global Times”, Hu Xijin, saw a “clear warning” in the indirect message: “The protesters must have got it,” the commentator loyal to the system wrote on Twitter. “If they repeat these protests, the risks will greatly increase.”
The commission has a high political weight in the power hierarchy in China. Under the leadership of state and party leader Xi Jinping, party bodies such as the Politics and Law Commission and other similar bodies have taken over essential functions from the government, which is now practically executive-only.
Protests in many major cities
The authorities’ rigorous measures in response to the new corona wave in China had led to protests in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities with populations exceeding one million. They were the largest demonstrations since the democratic movement in 1989, which was brutally crushed by the army at the time. Security forces broke up the protests and arrested an unknown number of protesters.
In response, a massive police presence was mobilized to prevent the demonstrations from flaring up again. There is a news blackout in the country about the protests. Social media posts of isolated new incidents were quickly removed by the censors and could not be independently confirmed.
Despite the displeasure, the Health Commission promised no deviation from the hard zero-Covid course. But the vaccination campaign needs to be intensified – especially in the older population. For fear of side effects, the elderly in the country of 1.4 billion people have been vaccinated less often. Only 40 percent of the over-80s received a repeat injection. This can lead to many victims in an uncontrolled corona wave.
Source: Krone
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