Chinese police beat a BBC journalist in Shanghai and briefly arrested him while he was covering anti-government lockdown protests gripping the nation.

Ed Lawrence was detained at the main protest in the city on Sunday, and held for several hours before being freed.

"It is very worrying that one of our journalists was attacked in this way whilst carrying out his duties," the BBC said.

 

this is the first time since 1989 that there have been these kinds of protests against the ccp and its leadership. The Protesters in many location are calling for the ccp and xi, in particular, to step down.

 

In addition to the crippling zero covid policy measures taken by the ccp, the World Cup broadcasts have revealed to the chinese people that the rest of the world is not all masked and covid riddled as they have been led to believe.

Another aspect to these protests is that they are widespread.  In the 1989 protest, it occurred by many people, but in one easy-to-deal with location.  

 

It would be nice for everyone if they could actually dump the current gov't.

I dislike these corrupt commies as much as dog <deleted> on my shoes but would more than 1 billion people all of a sudden know how to deal with freedom ? Look back to 1989 when the wall in Berlin came down. 16 million people couldn't deal with it and until now many struggle.

16 hours ago, poskat said:

In addition to the crippling zero covid policy measures taken by the ccp, the World Cup broadcasts have revealed to the chinese people that the rest of the world is not all masked and covid riddled as they have been led to believe.

A fair point... Chinese are seeing the freedoms the rest of the world are now enjoying and asking what Xi is doing.

what was a reason for his arrest?

not wearing a mask, which is probably compulsory there?

I think china didn't have a serious national lock down, like some other countries had, for example australia. At the very beginning of pandemic they closed tourist attractions (that included the great wall), cinemas, concerts, sport competitions. I think it was only for short time, a month or two. Industry started to get back to work in March 2020, That is around time nothern italian wave appeared. And the first lock down in Thailand.

They had and still have draconian measures at particular cities and provinces. The Wuhan lock down was dramatic, shocking, but contained spread within China.

A year ago they had Hong Kong delta wave, which overwhelmed their hospitals. 

Recently they had relaxed slightly international travel - shorter quarantine and only one test. So they are still behind phuket sandbox and Test&Go models (both of them had drawbacks because coinciding with delta and omictron).

They did not follow swedish model. Very few other countries have also tried that (the UK, USA, Brasil) but reversed them after being hit hard with waves. 

So china now, under social pressure, has their chance to try swedish model. It might work somehow, because their population now are vaccinated and covid specific antivirals are available (albeit expensive). But timing might be wrong, winter in nothern hemisphere usually triggers waves.

I am not sure what role Xi plays in covid measures, but I don't think he was made a czar of covid, as Prayuth was since April 2021 (I don't know when his tenure has ended, probably October 2022).

As to those covid protests - they are unprecedented in china, but were spreading in Europe from Summer 2020 (germany, UK), when police was using water cannons. Those protests had also political context, with right-wing groups participation

 

 

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

A fair point... Chinese are seeing the freedoms the rest of the world are now enjoying and asking what Xi is doing.

Yes, It is more about freedom than Covid 19 restrictions. The big questions is How much overspill into other counties will happen if this gets out of hand, and what would be Thailand's position if the overspill  happens?

1 hour ago, hotchilli said:

A fair point... Chinese are seeing the freedoms the rest of the world are now enjoying and asking what Xi is doing.

https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2022/11/29/china-censors-maskless-world-cup-fans-as-anti-lockdown-protests-grow-at-home/

 

40 minutes ago, vandeventer said:

and what would be Thailand's position if the overspill  happens?

On the fence I suspect.. usual position.

Troll post removed.