The police presence in the streets prevented for the moment any new gathering.
It is in this context that the President of the European Council Charles Michel leaves Tuesday evening for Beijing, where he will meet Thursday Xi Jinping.
It will address issues of human rights and fundamental freedoms
et intends to have a frank dialogue
with the Chinese president, assured a European official.
London has also summoned the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, Zheng Zeguang, after the arrest on Sunday of a BBC journalist who was covering the demonstrations in Shanghai.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission – which oversees law enforcement – said it was necessary to suppress the infiltration and sabotage activities of hostile forces in accordance with law
according to the minutes of a meeting, broadcast by the state-run news agency New China.
This organization considers it crucial to resolutely suppress in accordance with law criminal actions aimed at breaking social order and resolutely safeguard social stability
.
The National Health Commission, for its part, has undertaken toyears and to continue to increase the vaccination rate for people aged60at 79years”,”text”:”accelerate the increase in the vaccination rate for people aged over 80 and continue to increase the vaccination rate for people aged 60 to 79″}}”>accelerate the increase in the vaccination rate of people aged over 80 and continue to increase the vaccination rate of people aged 60 to 79.
In China, the deployment of law enforcement in major cities has deterred protesters from gathering. The government is maintaining its zero COVID policy, but it is focusing on vaccination and relaxing its health measures. The story of Lise Villeneuve.
Photo : Getty Images / HECTOR RETAMAL
Three years of sanitary measures
The insufficient rate of vaccination in China, particularly among the elderly, is one of the arguments put forward by the government to defend its strict health policy, with repeated confinements, quarantines on arrival from abroad and tests quasi daily for the population.
In force for almost three years, this policy was the target of demonstrations last weekend in several cities, the most widespread protest movement since the mobilizations for democracy repressed in blood in 1989.
Also in the background, deep frustrations with the political system, as shown by slogans chanted by the demonstrators, some demanding that Xi Jinping and the Communist Party leave power.
The trigger: a fatal fire last week in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region (North West). Health restrictions are accused of having prevented the work of the relief workers, arguments swept away by the government on Monday.
After a turbulent weekend, the large police deployment in major Chinese cities seemed to have deterred protesters on Tuesday, according to AFP in Beijing and Shanghai.
A man is arrested in Shanghai during a rally.
Photo : Getty Images / HECTOR RETAMAL
Police deployment, few demonstrations
In the capital, AFP journalists saw a few police vehicles but no protesters at the crossroads near the Asian Games village where a protest had been planned. The very low temperatures, minus nine degrees Celsius, had undoubtedly contributed to discouraging any new gatherings.
Participants in the weekend protests in Beijing told AFP on Monday that they had received phone calls from police asking about their whereabouts.
Frustration with the drastic measures taken to combat COVID-19 remained palpable. Politics [zéro COVID]it’s really too strict
told AFP in Shanghai a 17-year-old passerby, who wished to remain anonymous. It kills more people than COVID.
Some managed to gather on Tuesday evening, however, notably in Hong Kong – rocked in 2019 by pro-democracy protests – where dozens of people paid tribute, at the Chinese University, to the victims of the fire of Urumqi, AFP noted.
In the nearby city of Shenzhen, in mainland China, witnesses told AFP they had observed a heavy police presence after rumors on social networks of calls for demonstrations.
Authorities’ tight control over information and health restrictions on travel within China make it difficult to assess the total number of protesters over the weekend.
But such a widespread uprising is extremely rare in China, given the repression of any form of opposition to the government. It immediately aroused the attention of the international community, with US President Joe Biden having said in this regard that he stood informed
.
Demonstrators hold white sheets of paper to protest against health restrictions imposed by Chinese authorities.
Photo : Archyde.com / THOMAS PETER
Some relaxations
If Beijing is maintaining its strict policy in the face of COVID for the moment, a few gestures of relaxation have appeared in recent days. Thus, in Urumqi, the population could again travel by bus on Tuesday to do their shopping, after weeks of confinement.
Beijing Municipality has banned the practice of blocking building doors in gated residential complexes
according to New China, a process that fueled popular anger.
In this period of great uncertainty
the International Monetary Fund may have to revise its forecasts on the Chinese economy downwards, its director Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday.
According to her,: COVID-related restrictions and real estate sector difficulties”,”text”:”two factors are behind this slowdown in growth: COVID-related restrictions and real estate sector difficulties”}}” >two factors are behind this slowdown in growth: COVID-related restrictions and difficulties in the real estate sectorhit by a succession of developer bankruptcies and difficulties in completing the work.
This will not prevent a priori China’s nuclear arsenal to be on track to more than triple by 2035, estimated in a report made public the same day the Pentagon.