Protests erupted in Shanghai and on university campuses across the country over the weekend, with crowds calling for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its top leader to step down, in a rare display of public dissent that the country hasn’t seen in decades.
The latest wave of widespread anger, from the capital of Beijing to the southern city of Nanjing, occurred after massive protests broke out in the far west region of Xinjiang, where strict COVID-19 curbs were blamed for 10 deaths and nine injuries in a high-rise apartment fire in Urumqi, the region’s capital city. Local authorities denied the accusation.
