China eases city’s lockdown after protests

Residents line up for covid-19 tests Saturday in Beijing.
(AP/Ng Han Guan)
Residents line up for covid-19 tests Saturday in Beijing. (AP/Ng Han Guan)

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Authorities in China's western Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods Saturday in the capital of Urumqi after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city's draconian "zero-covid" lockdown that had lasted more than three months.

The displays of public defiance were fanned by anger over a fire in an apartment compound that had killed 10, according to the official death toll, as emergency workers took three hours to extinguish the blaze -- a delay many attributed to obstacles caused by anti-virus measures.

China is the only major country in the world that still is fighting the pandemic through mass testing and lockdowns.

During Xinjiang's lockdown, some residents elsewhere in the city have had their doors chained physically shut, including one who spoke to The Associated Press who declined to be named for fear of retribution.

Officials denied the accusations, saying there were no barricades in the building and that residents were permitted to leave. Police clamped down on dissenting voices, announcing the arrest of a 24-year-old woman for spreading "untrue information" about the death toll online.

Anger boiled over after Urumqi city officials held a press conference about the fire in which they appeared to shift responsibility for the deaths onto the apartment tower's residents.

"Some residents' ability to rescue themselves was too weak," said Li Wensheng, head of Urumqi's fire department.

Two Urumqi residents who declined to be named out of fear of retribution said large-scale protests occurred Friday night. It is unclear how widespread the protests were.

In one video, which the Associated Press could not independently verify, Urumqi's top official, Yang Fasen, told angry protesters he would open up low-risk areas of the city the following morning.

That promise was realized the next day, as Urumqi authorities announced that residents of low-risk areas would be allowed to move freely within their neighborhoods. Still, many other neighborhoods remain under lockdown.

Officials also triumphantly declared Saturday that they had basically achieved "societal zero-covid," meaning there was no more community spread and new infections were being detected only in people already under health monitoring, such as those in a centralized quarantine facility.

Social media users greeted the news with disbelief and sarcasm.

"Only China can achieve this speed," wrote one user on Weibo.

The government has doubled down its "zero-covid" policy even as it loosens some measures, such as shortening quarantine times. The central government has repeatedly said it will stick to "zero covid."

Meanwhile, in Beijing, health authorities reported 2,454 new covid-19 cases in the past 15 hours on Saturday. Much of the city is also under lockdown.

In numerous residential compounds in Beijing's northeastern suburbs, residents have banded together to oppose measures by local authorities and unelected resident's associations to lock gates and force neighbors into quarantine centers.

Police responded but no violence was known to have occurred.

At the Yutianxia community, an hourslong confrontation between police, residents and the Communist Party neighborhood resulted in an agreement to allow neighbors of three people who tested positive to quarantine at home rather than being taken to a government facility.

Many in Xinjiang have been locked down since August. Most have not been allowed to leave their homes, and some have reported dire conditions, including spotty food deliveries that have caused residents to go hungry.

On Friday, the city reported 220 new cases, the vast majority of which were asymptomatic.

Upcoming Events