Urumqi fire to zero-Covid policy: Why is China witnessing widespread protests?

Officials in China's capital, Beijing, have doubled down on the country's hallmark zero-Covid policy in recent weeks, one of an array of cities to impose sweeping shutdowns, mass testing and teleworking mandates as caseloads have hit all-time highs.

The ruling Communist Party's uncompromising zero-Covid strategy -- now in force for about three years -- has stoked anger and resentment, with widespread and sometimes violent protests kicking off across China's major cities.

Pandemic fatigue has been on the rise for some time, as a recent lightening of virus curbs has coincided with record infection tallies, prompting a patchwork of onerous restrictions in multiple major cities.

Read: China censors rare, nationwide protests

A deadly fire last week in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang region, was however the catalyst for the public anger, with many blaming Covid lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts.

People have taken to the streets in major cities and gathered at university campuses across China to call for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedoms, in a wave of protests not seen since pro-democracy rallies in 1989 were crushed.

China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid strategy, but maintaining relatively low numbers of cases and deaths has constrained its economic recovery, disrupted supply chains and hammered employment.

China's zero-Covid policy has drawn criticism ranging from scientists to its own citizens, leading to a cycle of lockdowns of many millions of people, anguish and anger.

Read: Chinese TV cuts maskless World Cup scenes as Covid anger mounts

Under zero-Covid, authorities lock down large population areas to stamp out viral spread in response to any coronavirus outbreak, even if just a small number of people test positive.

The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China since President Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.

The protests against Covid-19 lockdowns have spread to Beijing even as China reported close to 40,000 coronavirus cases on Monday as authorities scrambled to contain the fresh surge in infections.

For the fifth consecutive day, China reported close to 4,000 cases in the capital city of Beijing.

Protesters in multiple cities held up blank A4-sized sheets of white paper in a sign of solidarity and a nod to the lack of free speech in China. Others posted white squares on their WeChat social media profiles.

Viral photos also appeared to show students from top Chinese university Tsinghua holding up signs showing Friedmann equations -- chosen for the similarity between the physicist's name and the phrase "freed man" or "freedom."

By Monday, many of the earlier posts and references to "A4 paper" had been wiped from social sites, though similar posts continued to spread.

Social media users also turned to advanced wordplay to discuss the protests, using terms like "banana peel," which has the same initials as President Xi Jinping's name in Chinese, and "shrimp moss," which sounds similar to the phrase "step down."

Some crowds over the weekend called explicitly for Xi to step down, and yelled slogans like "No to Covid tests, yes to freedom," referencing a banner hung up by a solo protester in Beijing just before the Communist Party Congress in October.

(With agency inputs)