COVID curbs eased in China after protests

Amid a string of protests against Beijing’s strict measures to control the coronavirus pandemic, authorities in the Chinese city of Guangzhou have eased COVID restrictions a day after demonstrators in the southern city clashed with police.

China has imposed widespread lockdowns and travel restrictions, and conducted mass testing as part of its “zero-COVID” policy that has been generating rising anger. COVID restrictions have been eased in most parts of the world.

The demonstrations, which spread over the weekend to Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere, have become a show of public defiance unprecedented since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

The southwestern city of Chongqing will allow the close-contacts of people with COVID-19, who fulfil certain conditions, to quarantine at home, a city official said on Wednesday.

But with record numbers of cases nationwide, there seems little prospect of a major U-turn in the “zero-COVID” policy that President Xi has said has saved lives.

“Protests have taken a violent turn in Guangzhou, which has been hard-hit by the recent wave of infections. The unrest marks the escalation of a movement that spread to several large cities,” according to an Al Jazeera report.

Meanwhile, China’s top security agency called for a crackdown against “hostile forces” to avoid violence.

However, it is unclear who or what the government is referring to and it is yet to provide evidence of any external interference._ Al Jazeera