In November 2022, thousands of people took to the streets across China to protest against the government’s strict Covid-19 controls in an unprecedented wave of civil disobedience. They were thought to be the largest protests since the 1989 pro-democracy Tiananmen Square demonstrations when, at its height, a million people are estimated to have gathered.
It started in Shanghai with a vigil mourning victims of a deadly apartment fire in the western Xinjiang region, which saw some of the country’s most intense lockdowns.
