Protests at China lockdowns spread, with supply chains looking vulnerable again

Anti-lockdown protests have broken out across multiple cities in China, and the fresh Covid-restrictions threaten supply chains again.

A fire which killed 10 people in Urumqi, capital of the western Xinjiang region, appears to have triggered the widespread unrest, and strong-arm reprisals from the authorities.

The city had been under lockdown for more than 100 days and protesters took to the streets, blaming Covid-restrictions for delaying the response to the tragedy by emergency services and calling for an end to the lockdown.

Similar protests broke out over the weekend in cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu, with videos on social media showing largely peaceful protests and vigils outside universities.

In an unprecedented show of civil disobedience, the protesters in Shanghai chanted: “Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with Xi Jinping,” Reuters reported.

Other protesters held up blank sheets of white paper to “represent everything they cannot say”, the reports said, some calling it “the biggest act of defiance since Tiananmen Square”.