Voice of America
26 Nov 2022, 20:35 GMT+10
Protesters, angry about long COVID-19 lockdowns, have taken to the streets in Urumqi, the capital of China's far western Xinjiang region.
The protests followed a high-rise apartment building fire in Urumqi on Thursday that killed 10 people and concerns that the lockdown measures may have prevented firefighters from entering the building quickly and may have hampered the exit of some residents.
The demonstrations also follow online discussions, now removed, on Chinese social media questioning why there are maskless spectators at the World Cup games, while China continues to subject its citizens to long lockdowns.
"More than 120 countries in the rest of the world have lifted their COVID restrictive measures quite some time ago," began one of the questions posed by a writer who said he lives in north central Shannxi province, home to China's ancient capital city Xi'an.
"Why should they lead freer lives than Chinese citizens? I did not see anyone sporting face masks at the Qatar World Cup opening ceremony and did not hear of any attendee showing proof of negative COVID tests; does this mean they live on a different planet from us?"
Urumqi has been under lockdown since August. However, it is reporting about 100 new COVID cases each day.
Urumqi is also home to many Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group that human rights groups and western governments say suffered many human rights abuses at the hands of the Chinese government. China rejects the charges as interference in its internal affairs.
Get a daily dose of Herald Globe news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Herald Globe.
More InformationWASHINGTON, DC - The global community has extended aid to Turkey and Syria following the devastating earthquakes that hit the ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: US lawmakers have called on the Department of Energy to release documents detailing attempts by Russian hackers to ...
Photo credit: Ercin Erturk / Anadolu AgencyThe death toll from Monday's massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria has ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: In a sign of future political battles over record numbers of illegal crossings under Democratic President Joe Biden, ...
MOSCOW, Russia: Russian state-run TASS news agency has reported that a US woman was detained and fined by a Russian ...
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf died in a Dubai hospital on Sunday at the age of ...
Buffalo Sabres forward Dylan Cozens signed a seven-year, $49.7 million contract extension on Tuesday. Cozens, 22, previously was scheduled for ...
Miami Heat guard Kyle Lowry has been ruled out of the team's next three games due to lingering left knee ...
The Cleveland Guardians hired former UCLA softball player Amanda Kamekona as a hitting instructor. The franchise's first female on-field coach ...
New Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton is eyeing to pluck some assistant coaches from his old team in New ...
Cape Town [South Africa], February 7 (ANI): The Joburg Super Kings maintained their momentum in the build-up to the SA20 ...
Iowa will face Northwestern in a Big Ten football game at Chicago's Wrigley Field on Nov. 4. It is the ...