Waves of protests, Wuhan people break through lockdown and shouted ‘we want to live’

After large-scale protests broke out in Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, and Yurimchi, the wave of protests continued to spread across China. On November 26th, protests broke out in Shanghai, Beijing, and universities across the country. On November 27th, people in Wuhan, where the first cases of COVID-19 were discovered in China, also protested. A video caption said that in the ancient city of Hankou, Wuhan, people gathered on the lower floors of a residential area and shouted, lift the lockdown, we want to live. Residents forced the gate and people rushed out. On Zhongshan Avenue in Wuhan, people used bicycles to block the road and someone in the crowd can be heard shouting, I want to be free. Several videos posted on the internet shows crowds of people marching to Hangzhong Street, the most prosperous street in the city, tearing down the corrugated iron quarantine walls and nucleic acid checkpoints along the way. A large number of police arrived at the scene. When it got dark, people still confronted the police. According to Sound of Hope, tens of thousands of people gathered on Hangzhong Street and people from Hongshan District and Jiangxia District also took to the streets in protest. According to a video, there were a lot of people and a large number of policemen formed a wall to block the crowd. In a video, a resident angrily asked the police, why are you hitting people? You are a policeman. Your duty is to protect us. Is it wrong for us to do that? You hit people. Do you still have a conscience? The owner of a clothing store on Hangzhong Street in Wuhan said on the evening of November 27th that protests broke out on Hangzhong Street and merchants chanted slogans demanding an end to the lockdown. Then the merchants also spontaneously marched, tearing down the wall along the way. This person also said, the surrounding residents and merchants all joined together. There were over tens of thousands of people, including thousands of residents. The owner said that the secretary of Jioko District, Wuhan, and an anti-riot team of more than 200 people went to the protest site and told the merchants to send representatives to negotiate with them. However, both sides were at an impasse. It is known that Hubei was locked down four times this year in March, August, September, and October for a total of more than 40 days. Protests spread to Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai. There were anti-dictatorship chants. In addition to Wuhan, Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai all had gatherings of different sizes. People chanted, need human rights, no need for lifelong probation, anti-dictatorship, and long live the people. According to a video, a large number of people gathered at Wangping Street, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province on the evening of November 27th. The slogans they chanted included, free speech, better to die without freedom, and many more. The crowd packed the streets and Chengdu appeared on banners. In Beijing, about a thousand students protested at Tsinghua University during the day and chanted slogans such as democracy, the rule of law, and free speech. In the evening, crowds and police also appear by the Liangma Bridge, where people often go for a walk. Some held blank sheets of white paper to protest, while others placed flowers by the river and lit many candles in memory of the victims of the recent fire in Urumqi. As of about 3 a.m. on November 28th, it was reported that the protests in Beijing had dispersed, with some expressing that they no longer dared to raise their phones to take photos and videos for fear of being threatened by the police. Taiwan Central News Agency reported that, in a wave of protests that began on November 26th in Beijing, the white paper was an expression of anger at a lack of free speech. During the height of the anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong in 2020, local activists also held blank sheets of paper to avoid slogans banned by the national security law. According to Vision Times, at Wulu Mu Shi Road, Shanghai, after paying tribute to the victims of the fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang and the late-night protests on November 26th, the crowd gathered on the afternoon of November 27th and shouted, release the people, to express the injustice of those arrested by the police for protesting. Around 5 p.m., the police set up barricades, blocking the road and prohibited passersby from taking pictures and filming. On the evening of November 27th, social networks reported that many protesters in Shanghai were forcibly taken away by police or plainclothes police. The road marker Wulu Mu Shi at the protest site was also taken down.