Protesters in several major Chinese cities have expressed their anger over the country’s stringent “zero Covid” policy, under which cities are put on lockdown over just a handful of coronavirus cases. This is the biggest wave of demonstrations since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 – creating an unprecedented challenge for President Xi Jinping and prompting some relaxation of the measures.
The spark was lit at the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, which manufactures iPhones, on 22 November. Hundreds of workers demonstrated to denounce tight lockdown measures as well as the non-payment of bonuses. This was all it took for the protest movement to spread like wildfire in many cities across the country – as anger over China’s “zero Covid” policy boiled over.
