Growing lockdown defiance has Beijing regime in a bind

Police were out in force across China yesterday in response to scenes of mass public defiance not seen since Tiananmen Square more than three decades ago. Authorities in Shanghai erected barricades on a street where demonstrators had gathered, as protests over the draconian "zero Covid" policy swept the country.

- KIM SENGUPTA

The discontent is no longer just about the Covid restrictions which are seemingly ineffective as well as repressive, with cases reaching 40,052 on Sunday, a fifth consecutive daily record but is now an open challenge to the regime of Xi Jinping.

Demonstrators chanted "down with the Chinese Communist Party" and "Xi needs to go", and there were calls for an end to the autocracy and for a new democratic future.

It came as Britain condemned the "shocking and unacceptable" arrest of a BBC journalist in Shanghai, while prime minister Rishi Sunak spoke of the challenge posed by China's growing "authoritarian" behaviour. The reaction of Beijing to the protests has been to increase censorship, and to attempt to crack down on the demonstrations. State media have largely sought to ignore the protests, or to claim that Western powers are trying to sabotage Covid measures by inciting discord.

State television is accused of editing broadcasts from the World Cup to prevent viewers from seeing huge crowds in stadiums with few wearing masks. Social media has been awash with incredulity over the restrictions in China compared with scenes from Qatar.

"The World Cup has opened, and we haven't seen the fans wearing masks there, and we haven't heard reports that they must provide negative PCR test results, aren't they not living on the same planet as us? Doesn't the coronavirus harm them?" asked a blogger, Changan Ketang, echoing others, before such images started disappearing altogether.