The footage shows officers advancing on a street in Haizhu district with riot shields as glass objects are thrown at them. Videos checked by French news agency AFP show screams as barricades are knocked down. Other images show a dozen people who appear to have been arrested by the police.
The protests in Guangzhou are part of an unprecedented wave of protests in China in which people protest against the strict corona lockdowns. People across the country took to the streets in recent days following a fire in Urumqi that killed ten people. According to many Chinese, they could no longer escape due to the corona measures.
Endless, sudden and massive lockdowns to detect the slightest covid case, systematic quarantine in camps and almost daily PCR tests to gain access to the public space: the Chinese population is increasingly annoyed. Dissatisfaction is further fueled by several mediatized cases in which the emergency services were allegedly delayed by the corona restrictions, with fatal consequences.