Protests erupted across China, including at universities and in Shanghai, where hundreds of people chanted “Leave Xi Jinping! Resign, Communist Party!” in an unprecedented defiance of the strict and increasingly expensive policies of a country with zero COVID-19. CNN.

A deadly fire at an apartment building in the western region of Xinjiang on Thursday, which killed 10 people and injured nine others, has sparked outrage as video has emerged suggesting firefighters were late in getting to the victims.

Protests erupted in cities and universities across China on Saturday and early Sunday morning, according to videos on social media and eyewitness accounts.

Video footage showing hundreds of people in central Shanghai lighting candles to mourn those killed in a fire in Xinjiang on Saturday has been widely shared on Chinese social media.

Later, the crowd held up blank sheets of white paper, traditionally a symbolic protest against censorship, and chanted: “We want human rights, we want freedom.”

In several videos seen by CNN, people could be heard calling for Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Communist Party to “resign.” The crowd also chanted “I don’t want a Covid test, I want freedom!” and “I don’t want dictatorship, I want democracy!”

Some videos showed people singing China’s national anthem and the Internationale, a standard of the socialist movement, while holding placards protesting Beijing’s extremely strict measures against the pandemic. (News.ro)