London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Rare protests in China as fatal fire collides with zero-COVID fatigue

China is the only major country still fighting COVID with lockdowns and mass testing but, after living with extreme restrictions for months, many citizens have had enough.

Public anger in China towards continuing COVID-19 lockdowns has sparked rare protests in a number of major cities in recent days.

The latest demonstrations were prompted by a fire in a high-rise apartment block in the northwestern Xinjiang region on Thursday.

The fire, in the city of Urumqi, killed at least 10 people, and questions have been raised over whether China's strict lockdown policy stopped residents from escaping the flames.

Officials deny this, and a fire department spokesperson inspired further anger after appearing to blame residents for not being able to "rescue themselves".

Many Chinese cities have been under strict lockdown for months - many of Urumqi's four million residents, for example, have been unable to leave their homes for any reason since August.

In Shanghai on Saturday night, police used pepper spray on around 300 protesters who had gathered at Middle Urumqi Road with flowers and candles and holding signs that said "Urumqi November 24" in memory of the fire's victims.

A protester who gave only his family name, Zhao, told The Associated Press that one of his friends was beaten by police and two friends were pepper sprayed.

He said police stomped on his feet as he tried to stop them from taking his friend away. He lost his shoes in the process, and left the protest barefoot.

Mr Zhao said protesters yelled slogans including "Xi Jinping, step down, Communist Party, step down", "Unlock Xinjiang, unlock China", "do not want PCR (tests), want freedom" and "press freedom".

Reuters reported it had seen a video showing Beijing residents in an unidentifiable part of the city marching around an open-air carpark on Saturday, shouting "end the lockdown".

Sean Li, a resident of Beijing, told Reuters that a planned lockdown for his compound was called off on Friday after residents spotted workers putting barriers on their gates.

The residents had protested to their local leader and convinced him to cancel the plans.

Mr Li said: "The Urumqi fire got everyone in the country upset.

"That tragedy could have happened to any of us."

Urumqi, in Xinjiang, saw protests on Friday night, when a vigil for fire victims turned into an anti-lockdown demonstration.

People chanted "open up, open up", in videos that were shared on social media before being deleted by censors on Saturday.

But the protesters won some concessions, with parts of the city deemed low risk being given a bit more freedom from restrictions during the weekend.

Protests against government policy are rare in China but even more unusual in Xinjiang.

Xinjiang, home to China's persecuted Uyghur minority, has experienced some of the country's longest lockdown restrictions, with reports of people left starving earlier in the year.

China's zero-COVID policy was initially well-received by citizens, who saw it as minimising deaths while other countries were battling huge casualties.

But support has fallen in recent months as Chinese people tire of restrictions that go far beyond what was seen during the UK's lockdown, for example.

China is the only major country that is still fighting the COVID-19 pandemic with mass testing and strict lockdowns.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×