Chinese authorities have launched an investigation into citizens who protested over the weekend against COVID-19-related restrictions. Now the police demand that they come to the station with explanations. This is reported by Reuters with reference to the demonstrators in Beijing.
Now there are a large number of police officers on the streets of the city. According to local residents, in some areas, police are asking people to show their smartphones to check if they have the VPN and Telegram used by the protesters.
One of the participants after the demonstration received a call from the police and was asked to report to the station with a written report on his actions on Sunday evening. The students who participated in the protests received a call from the college and were also asked to provide a written report indicating where they were on Sunday. One of the protesters said in an interview with the agency that all participants urgently delete chat correspondence.
On November 27, mass protests took place in a number of cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai. The demonstrations were triggered by tight anti-COVID restrictions and a fire in the city of Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Residents of some areas are practically forbidden to leave their apartments; on December 24, 10 people died during a fire in a residential building, the residents of which were under quarantine. In social networks, they began to actively discuss that they could not get out due to restrictions. In Shanghai, protesters began to raise anti-government slogans, including "Xi Jinping, go away!" and "Communist Party, go away," reports the BBC.
China has a "zero tolerance" policy for COVID-19. In order to limit the spread of the virus, measures such as lockdowns and mandatory quarantine for those who have been in contact with the infected are being applied.