Authorities have failed to respond to last week’s fire, which sparked protests against coronavirus measures in China.
It is suspected that victims were unable to flee due to coronavirus restrictions or that emergency services failed to respond quickly enough.
The population protests against the zero Covid policy
In the People’s Republic, strict corona policy has led to the biggest protests in decades. Not only in Shanghai, but also in the capital Beijing and other megacities, hundreds of protesters took to the streets. The police used violence against them. It is not known how many people were arrested. So far there have been no official statements on the protests or criticism of President Xi Jinping.
The police intervene against the journalists
The China Foreign Correspondents Club (FCCC) has criticized Chinese police for cracking down on journalists. Employees of several news outlets were physically harassed by police as they reported the riots, she said. At least two journalists have been temporarily arrested.
The BBC had previously announced that one of its reporters had been arrested in Shanghai and said he had been ill-treated by police officers. A Beijing Foreign Ministry spokesman justified the arrest by stating that the journalist did not identify himself as a journalist and did not voluntarily show his ID. According to the BBC, police said upon release that the journalist was only taken into custody to protect him from a coronavirus infection in the crowd.
This message was broadcast on Deutschlandfunk on November 28, 2022.
