Although protests in China have now successfully convinced government officials to loosen enforced COVID-19 restrictions, anybody expressing their dissent in person or online has had to do so while navigating their country's notoriously strict censors.
After a deadly apartment fire in the city of Urumqi left at least 10 dead in late November, many questioned whether long-standing COVID restrictions limiting mobility within buildings could be blamed, which became a national conversation about the sustainability of the country's "zero-COVID" measures.
