How is China suppressing protests against covid restrictions?

China’s protests against anti-COVID measures that erupted over the weekend seem to have subsided as authorities began to crack down on them.

A strong police presence was noted in many cities, and some demonstrations were suppressed or not held at all.

People were reportedly questioned and their phones searched.

But overseas Chinese continued their protests in at least a dozen cities around the world.

Demonstrations escalated last weekend after 10 people died last week in a fire at a high-rise building in Urumqi, western China.

It is believed that residents were unable to escape the fire due to covid restrictions, but local authorities have objected to this.

As a result, thousands took to the streets for days demanding an end to the curfew – some even making occasional calls for Chinese President Xi Jinping to step down.

However, the planned protests in the capital Beijing on Monday 28/11 did not take place after security forces surrounded the meeting point.

In Shanghai, huge barriers were erected along the main protest road and the police made numerous arrests.

On Tuesday morning, police were seen patrolling in both cities, where some groups on the social media app Telegram were suggesting new demonstrations.

A small protest in the southern city of Hangzhou on Monday night was also quickly dispersed and arrests were made, according to social media footage verified by the BBC.

But in Hong Kong, dozens of protesters gathered in the city center and on the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong as a show of solidarity with the protesters in mainland China.

Many were also crowded outside Chinese embassies in major cities around the world, such as London, Paris, and Tokyo, and universities in the United States and Europe.

One expert suggested that the local protests are unlikely to end any time soon.

But Drew Thompson, visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore, added that it’s also important to note that Chinese police “have an enormous capacity.” [e] China’s ability to control these protests in the future… is pretty high.”

According to media reports, police were stopping people and checking if they had virtual private networks (VPNs) installed in their homes, as well as apps like Telegram and Twitter, which are banned in China.

A woman told AFP news agency that she and five of her friends who were attending a protest in Beijing received phone calls from the police and requested information about their whereabouts.

According to him, after the woman did not answer the phone, a police officer went to a friend’s house and asked if he had participated in the protest, stressing that it was an “illegal meeting”.

It is unclear how the police might have uncovered the identities of those present.

Police have also detained journalists who have been covering the protests in recent days. One of its journalists was briefly detained on Sunday before being released, Reuters news agency said.

BBC reporter Ed Lawrence was also detained for several hours that same night while following a protest in Shanghai. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the arrest as “shocking and unacceptable”, adding that it would worry China over the UK’s response to the protests.

Censorship on Chinese social media platforms has increased since the weekend protests.

Tens of millions of posts were filtered from search results. State media are ditching Covid coverage in favor of optimistic stories about the World Cup and China’s space achievements.

It’s a very different scene on Western social media platforms, where some Chinese are used to sharing information, including advice to protesters to avoid arrest.

An Instagram account, a platform blocked in China and only accessible through a VPN, posted a “safety guide for friends in Shanghai and across the country,” which included tips to stay anonymous, like wearing dark clothing and bringing sunglasses. if tear gas is sprayed.

The Chinese government has not officially commented on the protests.

Dilemma for the Xi government

analysis Tessa Wong, BBC News, Singapore

Can the government listen to the protesters and relax its covid restrictions policy?

Doing this now – minimizing deaths and infections – will be difficult given the country’s low vaccination rates among the elderly, the lack of highly effective local vaccines, and the government’s continued refusal to use foreign vaccines.

China has recently loosened some measures, shortened quarantine times and stopped the registration of secondary contacts.

But the relaxation of measures is inevitably causing a jump in infections and deaths.

And that’s something Chinese officials still don’t seem to want to admit.

China remains the only major economy with a zero covid policy, and local authorities are putting pressure on even minor outbreaks with mass testing, quarantines and lockdowns.

While China has developed its own Covid vaccines, they are not as good as mRNA technology used elsewhere (like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines).

Two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine provide 90% protection against serious illness or death, while the Chinese Sinovac provides 70% protection.

Vaccines were also not given to enough people. Few older people who are more likely to die from Covid have been vaccinated.

People who recover from infections as a result of the breakdown of the virus also have little “natural immunity.”

This means that new variants are spreading much faster than the virus that emerged three years ago, and there is a constant risk of being imported from countries that have allowed the virus to spread.

– This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-63793782.