HONG KONG
\nProtests against China\u2019s strict zero-COVID policy and restrictions on freedoms have spread to at least a dozen cities around the world in a show of solidarity with rare displays of defiance in China over the weekend.
\nExpatriate dissidents and students staged small-scale vigils and protests in cities in Europe, Asia and North America, including London, Paris, Tokyo and Sydney, according to a Reuters tally.
\nIn most cases dozens of people attended the protests, though a few drew more than 100, the tally showed.
\nThe gatherings are a rare instance of Chinese people uniting in anger at home and abroad.
\nThe protests on the mainland were triggered by a fire in China\u2019s Xinjiang region last week that killed 10 people who were trapped in their apartments. Protesters said lockdown measures were partly to blame, though officials denied that.
\nOn Monday evening dozens of protesters gathered in Hong Kong\u2019s Central business district, the scene of sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations in 2019.
\n\u201cI think this is the normal right of people expressing their opinion. I think they should not suppress this kind of right,\u201d said Lam, a 50-year-old Hong Kong citizen.
\nDozens of students also gathered at the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to mourn those who died in Xinjiang, according to video footage online.
\nSince President Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago, authorities have clamped down hard on dissent, tightening controls on civil society, the media and the internet.
\nBut the strict policy aimed at stamping out COVID with lockdowns and quarantine has become a lightning rod for frustrations.
\nThe policy has kept China\u2019s death toll much lower than many other countries but it has come at a cost of long spells of confinement at home for many millions and damage to the world\u2019s second-biggest economy.
\nNevertheless, Chinese officials say it must be maintained to save lives, especially among the elderly given their low vaccination rates.
\nSome overseas protesters said it was their turn to take on some of the burden their friends and family had been enduring.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s what I should do. When I saw so many Chinese citizens and students take to the streets, my feeling is they have shouldered so much more than we have,\u201d said graduate student Chiang Seeta, one of the organisers of a demonstration in Paris on Sunday that drew about 200 people.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re now showing support for them from abroad,\u201d Chiang said.
\nA Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told a regular briefing on Monday that China was not aware of any protests abroad calling for an end to the zero-COVID policy.
\nAsked about the protests at home, the spokesperson said the question did not \u201creflect what actually happened\u201d and said China believed the fight against COVID would be successful with the leadership of the party and the cooperation of the people.
\nBLAME, SLOGANS
\nIt has been common in recent years for overseas Chinese students to rally in support of their government against its critics, but anti-government protests have been rare.
\nOutside the Pompidou Centre in Paris, some protesters brought flowers and lit candles for those killed in the Xinjiang fire.
\nSome blamed President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party and demanded their removal from office.
\nDefiance towards Xi has become increasingly public after a dissident hung a banner on a Beijing bridge last month ahead of a Communist Party Congress, criticising Xi for clinging to power and the zero-COVID policy.
\nAbout 90 people gathered at Shinjuku, one of Tokyo\u2019s busiest train stations, on Sunday, among them a university student from Beijing who said any protests in China against COVID rules would inevitably focus blame on the Communist Party.
\n\u201cAt the core of it is China\u2019s system,\u201d said the student, who asked to be identified as just Emmanuel.
\nBut some protesters were uncomfortable with more belligerent slogans.
\nAn organiser of a protest planned for later on Monday at Columbia University in New York, who asked to be identified as Shawn, said she would steer clear of sensitive issues such as Taiwan\u2019s status and China\u2019s mass internment of ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
\n\u201cWe have spoken to some activists from Taiwan and Xinjiang … We\u2019ve agreed to refrain from (that),\u201d said Shawn from the Chinese city of Fuzhou.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HONG KONG Protests against China\u2019s strict zero-COVID policy and restrictions on freedoms have spread to at least a dozen cities around the world in a show of solidarity with rare displays of defiance in China over the weekend. Expatriate dissidents and students staged small-scale vigils and protests in cities in Europe, Asia and North America, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-298067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n