TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Authorities in western China’s Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods in the capital Urumqi on Saturday after residents demonstrated overnight against the city’s lockdown, which has taken more than three months.
The public demonstrations were fueled by anger over a fire in an apartment building that killed 10 people, according to the official death toll, as it took rescuers three hours to put out the flames, a delay many attribute to the hurdles caused by anti-fire measures. the coronavirus .
The demonstrations, as well as public outrage online, are the latest signs of growing frustration with China’s “zero COVID” strategy. It is the only major country in the world still battling the pandemic with mass testing and lockdowns.
During the Xinjiang blockade, some city residents had their doors physically locked with chains, including one who spoke to the Associated Press who declined to be named for fear of retaliation. Many in Urumqi believe such brute force tactics may have prevented residents from escaping Friday’s fire and that the actual death toll is higher.
Officials denied the allegations, saying there were no barricades in the building and residents could leave. Police cracked down on dissenting voices and announced the arrest of a 24-year-old woman for spreading ‘false information’ about the death toll online.
Tensions flared after Urumqi city officials held a press conference on the fire in which residents of the apartment tower were reportedly being blamed for the deaths.
“Some residents’ ability to save themselves was very poor,” said Li Wensheng, fire chief of Urumqi.
For the most part, the people of Urumqi marched peacefully in big white quilted jackets in the cold winter night.
Videos of the protests show people holding up the Chinese flag and shouting, “Open, open.” The videos quickly spread on Chinese social media despite heavy censorship. In some scenes, people are seen screaming and pushing through rows of men dressed in white protective suits worn by government employees and pandemic prevention volunteers.
By Saturday, most of the videos had been removed by censorship. The Associated Press was unable to independently verify all of the videos, but two Urumqi residents who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals said large protests erupted late Friday evening. One of them said that friends of his attended.
The AP determined that the location of two of the protest videos belonged to different parts of Urumqi. In one of the videos, police wearing masks and hospital gowns confront screaming protesters. In another, a protester speaks to the crowd about his demands. The extent of the protests is unclear.
Given China’s vast security apparatus, protests are risky anywhere in the country, but they are extraordinary in Xinjiang, which has been subject to a brutal crackdown for years. Large numbers of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities have been drawn into a vast network of camps and prisons.
Most of the protesters featured in the videos were Han Chinese. One Uyghur woman living in Urumqi said this was because Uyghurs were too scared to go out into the streets despite their annoyance.
“The Han Chinese know they will not be punished if they speak out against the blockade,” she said, declining to be named for fear of reprisals against her family. “Uyghurs are different. If we dare to say these things, they will take us to prison or to the fields”.
In a video, which the AP could not independently verify, senior Urumqi official Yang Fasen told angry protesters he would open up low-risk areas of the city the next morning.
That promise came true the next day, when Urumqi authorities announced that residents of low-risk areas would be able to move freely around their neighborhoods. However, many other neighborhoods remain closed.
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Kang reported from Beijing.
