Protesters Outside London's Chinese Embassy Demand End to Xi's Zero-COVID Policy

Hundreds protested outside the Chinese embassy in London late on November 27, demanding an end to the communist nation’s zero-COVID policy. “Protesters conducted a peaceful protest and lit candles and laid flowers in memory of the victims who died in the fire accident in Urumqi, China,” Prabhu Mallikarjunan, who filmed video of the protests, told Storyful. Across the weekend, protests spread to cities across China, reflecting rising public outrage over the harsh COVID-19 controls, and anger over Thursday’s deadly apartment fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang, in western China, where at least 10 people died and nine others were injured. Footage circulating online shows a protester being dragged along the ground by several police officers on Shanghai’s Wulumuqi Road. The road is named after the capital of China’s Xinjiang province, where the apartment fire occurred. Channel News Asia reported Chinese people blamed the apartment fire deaths on lockdown restrictions. Local authorities denied the claims. People in China have tolerated the most restrictive measures in the world for suppressing COVID-19, media reported. Credit: Prabhu Mallikarjunan via Storyful