China Covid Protests Live Updates: BBC reporter beaten up as clashes spread over Zero-Covid policy

China Covid Protests Live Updates: China's foreign ministry responded saying that the reporter had not identified himself as a journalist.

China on Monday dismissed concerns over its controversial zero-COVID policy in the face of unprecedented demonstrations, which have spread to Beijing even as it reported close to 40,000 coronavirus cases and authorities scrambled to contain the fresh surge in infections and protests against the Xi Jinping regime. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian also defended the arrest of a BBC journalist covering the demonstrations in Shanghai, maintaining that the scribe did not present his media credentials. UK broadcaster BBC on Sunday claimed that Chinese police had assaulted one of its journalists covering protests in Shanghai over the government’s ‘Zero Covid’ strategy and detained him for several hours.

Police on Monday patrolled the scenes of weekend protests in Shanghai and Beijing after crowds there and in other cities across China demonstrated against stringent COVID-19 measures disrupting lives three years into the pandemic. From the streets of several Chinese cities to dozens of university campuses, protesters made a show of civil disobedience unprecedented since leader Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago. Nearly 1,000 people gathered in the capital Beijing, early on Monday, to demonstrate their anger over an apartment fire late last week in the far western city of Urumqi that killed 10 people.

The Chinese government should "take notice" of protests against its strict zero-COVID policy and restrictions on freedoms, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Monday.

"Protests against the Chinese government are rare and when they do happen I think the world should take notice, but I think the Chinese government should take notice," Cleverly told reporters.

"It's clear that the Chinese people themselves are deeply unhappy with what is going on, about the restrictions imposed upon them by the Chinese government," Cleverly said, adding that, "These are the voices of Chinese people talking to their government and I think it's right that the Chinese government listens to what those people are saying." (Reuters)

https://indianexpress.com/article/world/china-covid-protests-live-updates-8293638/


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