SHANGHAI BEIJING: Protests in China against heavy COVID 19 curbs spread to Shanghai on Sunday November 27 with demonstrators gathering at one of Beijing's most prestigious universities after a deadly fire in the country's far west sparked widespread anger.
Since Xi Jinping took power a decade ago, a wave of civil disobedience, including protests in Urumqi where the fire occurred as well as elsewhere in Beijing and other cities, has reached unprecedented levels in China.
In Shanghai, China's most populous city, residents gathered on Saturday night at Wulumuqi Road - named after Urumqi - for a candlelight vigil that turned into a protest in the early hours of Sunday.
As a large group of police looked on, the crowd held up blank sheets of paper - a protest against censorship. Later on, they shouted: lift lockdown for Urumqi, lift lockdown for Xinjiang, lift lockdown for all of China! According to a video, the video was distributed on social media.
A large group began shouting, Down with the Chinese Communist Party, Down with Xi Jinping, according to witnesses and videos, in a rare public protest against the country's leadership.
The police tried to break up the crowd.