Chaos Erupts in Locked-Down China

Analyzing a weekend of protests against COVID, Xi Jinping, and Communist rule

The people of China are clamoring for freedom. For the first time in years, thousands upon thousands of Chinese residents began protesting over the weekend, gathering on city streets and at universities demanding freedom from the Communist Party’s incredibly strict COVID lockdowns.

The protests began as a response to a deadly fire in China’s Zinjiang Region last Thursday, while Americans were celebrating Thanksgiving. Ten people died in the fire, which burned a residential building as lockdown measures seemed to keep firefighters from getting through to the disaster. Videos of the fire began circulating on Chinese social media but were quickly censored by the Chinese government.

After enduring three years of COVID isolation and control, the people of China seem to have had enough. Many of them are young students who likely have no memory of previous acts of protest against the government, like the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in 1989.