For three years the patience of one billion Chinese was stretched with lockdowns - now it's snapped.
protest on a Beijing bridge,
By the time the Urumqi fire happened, the stage was set for widespread demonstrations. Hundreds first took to the streets in that city, then many more followed suit in Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Nanjing and Chengdu, some even calling for Mr Xi and the CCP to step down. Ho-fung Hung, a sociologist with Johns Hopkins University, said they presented "a dire situation" and the first serious test to Mr Xi's rule.
But, as seen in other countries such as Singapore and Australia which transitioned from zero Covid to living with the virus, any relaxation of measures would inevitably result in a jump in infections and deaths.Many cities including Beijing and Guangzhou have once again put in place restrictions to tackle fresh outbreaks, even though experts have warned it is difficult to maintain zero Covid for the long term given the virus' rapid evolution and government's finite resources.
But there is also the lingering fear of Covid among the Chinese - after three years of being conditioned by the state to view the virus as a fearsome enemy - as well as a continued lack of effective vaccines.
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