Large-scale protests against China’s harsh zero-Covid policy, which has been in effect for more than three months, reportedly broke out in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
Hundreds of people reportedly gathered in the streets on Wednesday afternoon when the agitation began, and it continued throughout the following day.
Social media is flooded with videos of people marching in the streets. It was challenging to understand what was being said in these clips because they were in chinese.
Another video showed officials blocking hundreds of people who had assembled on the streets, with an official on the loudspeaker asking them to ‘please be understanding and to go back’, according to BBC.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported citing sources that the protesters warned Chinese officials that if the Covid lockdown measures aren’t lifted, they would ‘set off a fire’.
RFA asserted that they were making a reference to the 2009 incident in which people set themselves on fire in a show of defiance against the oppressive Chinese occupation, however it is unclear what they meant by that.
The intermittent demonstration has shocked the authorities, who have increased their security across Tibet out of concern that a dispute between citizens and police officers would turn violent.
Early in August, in Lhasa, the Covid lockdown was implemented after the number of cases began to rise.
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