Hundreds of police officers and dozens of vehicles patrolled the streets of Shanghai on Monday night, after a weekend marked by protests against the controversial policy China of “zero covid”.
After a deadly fire in the northwestern city of Urumqi, outrage grows in China against the restrictions due to covid-19, criticized for having slowed down the firefighting tasks.
Look: The zero COVID-19 strategy: the uncertain future of the pandemic in China
Large demonstrations took place on Sunday in the center of Shanghaiwhere clashes broke out between protesters and police officers near Wulumuqi Street, the Mandarin name for Urumqi.
Numerous police officers and vehicles were present this Monday in the same area in order to deter new attempts to protestsas verified by AFP journalists, who saw how the agents arrested four people and released one throughout the day.
On Wulumuqi Street, there were 12 police vehicles within 100 meters, according to an AFP journalist.
“The atmosphere is tense tonight. There are many police officers in this area,” said a pedestrian, who called himself Taku (a pseudonym) and explained that he had lost his job at an airline company due to the pandemic and considered that the demonstrations were justified.
“The rest of the world is back to normal, but China remains paralyzed due to a politics of zero covid. This city is on the way to going crazy,” added Taku, who said he was waiting “impatiently for something to happen.”
deleted photos
Another young man told AFP that the police had specifically asked him if he had downloaded foreign apps on his phone, a question asked of many other Chinese citizens, according to reports on social media.
“The environment is strange, but I don’t feel in danger,” said a woman in her 30s, who works as a shop assistant and lamented a decrease in commercial activity in the area where the demonstrations took place.
Despite everything, it was rather calm on Monday night and the AFP only saw how four agents called two young people to their attention and inspected their mobile phones and cameras before letting them go.
Police officers also deleted photos from mobile phones of several people in the Wulumuqi Road area.
“As a citizen of ShanghaiI am free to record,” said a young man briefly detained for having recorded a demonstration.
“Now it’s like that Shanghai. There is no freedom, ”she lamented.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
