Demands for rights and freedoms rising in China
Growing discontent with the Covid-19 restrictions in China turned into street action with rare protests in the country.
The fact that there has been no end to the practices that have disrupted the flow of life, such as mass quarantine, mass tests, travel barriers, for about 3 years since the beginning of the Pandemic, has led the Chinese to the feeling that they will not be able to get out of this situation.
The protests and reactions that spread throughout the country after the fire in the apartment allegedly quarantined in Urumqi last week revealed the reaction of the Chinese people to the Covid-19 applications.
The government's insistence on strict Covid-19 measures has become the crux of the country's demands for rights and freedoms and political, social, and economic problems.
FIRE IN URUMQI
On November 24, 10 people lost their lives in the fire that broke out in an apartment allegedly quarantined in Urumqi, the capital of East Turkestan (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region).
In the fire in the region where Uyghur Turks and other ethnic minorities live intensely, the allegations that the people living in the apartment could not leave their homes due to quarantine, and the firefighters could not intervene in time because they could not enter the complex surrounded by metal barriers and barriers, caused a reaction across the country.
The spread of videos on social media showing that the pressurized water sprayed by the fire brigade could not reach the building also increased the reactions.
The next night, the angry citizens gathered in the square where the government building is located in Urumqi and showed their reactions with the slogans "Lift the quarantine", "Serve the people", "If we are going to die, let's die together".
The increasing continuation of Covid-19 measures turned the increasing unrest across China into a reaction. Protests have been held in major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing commemorating the victims and criticizing the measures.
While protests were organized on many university campuses, protests against control measures were held in streets and settlements in different cities of the country.
DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING WHITE PAPER
The demonstrators, carrying white paper in many cities, chanted slogans such as "We want freedom", "No to quarantine", "No to the health code" and expressed their reactions to the rulers of the country.
Blank white papers have become a symbol of protests in which demands for rights and freedoms, especially freedom of expression, were voiced, as well as the reaction to the Covid-19 measures.
Blank white papers, first seen in the hands of the crowd gathered in Shanghai, have been a recurring theme in protests across the country.
The papers, which look like blank currencies without any slogans on them, were engraved in the memories as a way out of the protests against the restrictions of the Chinese administration.
