China's western Xinjiang region eased some Covid restrictions in its capital Urumqi on Monday, after a deadly fire in the city blamed on virus controls sparked protests across the country.

People in the city of four million, some of whom have been confined to their homes for weeks on end, can travel around on buses to run errands within their home districts starting Tuesday, officials said at a press conference Monday.

Certain essential businesses in "low-risk" areas could also apply to restart operations -- at 50 percent capacity -- while public transport and flights will start "resuming in an orderly manner", officials said a day earlier.

Ten people were killed when a blaze ripped through a residential building in Urumqi on Thursday night, spurring crowds to take to the streets in multiple Chinese cities this weekend to protest against the country's strict zero-Covid policy.

Many social media users blamed Covid lockdowns in Urumqi for hampering rescue efforts, but officials have instead said private cars obstructed firefighters.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Monday lashed out at "forces with ulterior motives" for linking the fire with Covid.

But in the wake of the protests, officials on Saturday said the city "had basically reduced social transmissions to zero" and they would "restore the normal order of life for residents in low-risk areas in a staged and orderly manner".

Officials at the press conference on Monday said Urumqi would also resume parcel delivery services -- but logistics workers would have to stay in a "closed loop" at company dormitories.

China's unrelenting zero-Covid push has sparked protests and hit productivity in the world's second-largest economy, as the public grows weary of snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing campaigns.

A series of new rules announced by Beijing earlier this month appeared to signal a shift away from the strategy, easing quarantine requirements for entering the country and simplifying a system for designating high-risk areas.

But officials have instead dug in their heels, even shutting down large parts of China's capital as national case numbers shot past the 30,000 mark in recent days to record highs.

Public anger boiled over on the weekend when hundreds gathered on university campuses and cities around the country demanding an end to the zero-Covid policy.

In Beijing, the city government said on Sunday afternoon it will not allow snap lockdowns of residential areas to be in place for more than 24 hours.

A timeline of Covid-related protests in China
Beijing (AFP) Nov 28, 2022 - Discontent has brewed for months in China over the country's zero-Covid policy, with relentless mass testing, localised lockdowns and travel restrictions pushing many across the country to the brink.

And those frustrations have now spilled onto the streets of some of China's biggest cities as protesters call for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedoms.

Here is a timeline of key Covid-related protests since the start of the year.

- Shanghai frustrations -

A gruelling lockdown in Shanghai from late March bought the first visible glimmers of widespread dissent against Covid restrictions.

The measures sparked sporadic protests and food shortages -- both almost unheard of in China's richest metropolis.

In April, a six-minute video montage of audio clips of despairing residents quickly went viral in China before being censored.

Social media users posted the video in multiple formats to evade censorship, in the biggest wave of online protest since the Wuhan Covid whistleblower and doctor Li Wenliang died in February 2020.

- Campus protests -

In May, hundreds of students at one campus of the elite Peking University in Beijing protested against strict lockdown measures that allowed more freedom of movement for staff than students.

The rare protest was later defused after officials agreed to relax some restrictions.

Campuses across China have been locked down for virtually the entire pandemic, barring visitors and preventing students from returning home easily.

- Henan bank protests -

From May to July, hundreds of bank depositors who lost their money when multiple rural banks in Henan province froze deposits gathered in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to demonstrate.

Some protesters reported that their Covid health codes inexplicably turned red upon arrival at Zhengzhou, barring them from travel, and accused officials of tampering with the system.

Health codes are used in contact tracing and linked to ID documents. In many cities across China, scanning a health code is a requirement to enter public spaces and use public transport.

- Tibet protests -

In October, hundreds in the tightly policed Tibetan regional capital of Lhasa staged a rare demonstration, against a harsh lockdown that persisted for almost three months.

Videos showed hundreds of people -- who appeared to be mostly migrant workers of Han Chinese ethnicity -- marching through the streets, demanding to be allowed to return home.

Protests were geolocated to an area near the Potala Palace, the traditional residence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

- Beijing bridge -

That same month, just days before China's ruling party was set to open a landmark congress, a defiant protester draped two hand-painted banners with slogans criticising the Communist Party's policies on the side of a bridge in Beijing.

"No Covid tests, I want to make a living. No Cultural Revolution, I want reforms. No lockdowns, I want freedom. No leaders, I want to vote. No lies, I want dignity. I won't be a slave, I'll be a citizen," one banner read.

The other banner called on citizens to go on strike and remove "the traitorous dictator Xi Jinping".

- Guangzhou clashes -

In November, protesters in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou clashed with police, after lockdowns were extended due to a surge in infections.

Videos circulating on social media and verified by AFP showed hundreds taking to the street, some tearing down cordons intended to keep locked-down residents from leaving their homes.

"No more testing," protesters chanted, with some throwing debris at police.

- Foxconn protests -

Violent protests erupted at the world's largest iPhone factory, in the city of Zhengzhou, Henan province.

Hundreds of staff at the plant, owned by Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, marched because of disputes over pay and conditions, with some clashes between protesters and riot police.

Foxconn later offered new recruits a bonus equivalent to $1,400 to end their contracts and leave, in a bid to stamp out the unrest.

The sprawling factory with more than 200,000 workers has been under lockdown since October after a surge in Covid infections.

- Urumqi protests -

Hundreds took to the streets of Xinjiang's regional capital Urumqi in late November, according to videos circulating on social media, calling for an end to lockdown measures that have affected the region for the past three months.

Footage partially verified by AFP showed them massing outside the city government offices during the night, chanting: "Lift lockdowns!"

The protests occurred after a fire killed 10 people in a city apartment block. Social media users claimed lockdown measures prevented residents from leaving their homes in time and delayed access to the compound by emergency services.

The rare mass protests in the tightly policed region sparked a wave of similar unrest and mourning vigils across Chinese cities and campuses.

Uyghur man's agony after five relatives died in Urumqi fire
Beijing (AFP) Nov 28, 2022 - When a deadly fire broke out in China's northwest Xinjiang region, triggering a wave of public anger over the country's zero-Covid policy, Abdulhafiz Maimaitimin initially could not believe that it claimed five of his relatives' lives.

Ten people were killed and nine injured when the blaze ripped through a residential building in the regional capital Urumqi on Thursday night, with many blaming lengthy lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts.

The tragedy spurred an outpouring of anger in Urumqi which has since swelled into a wave of large-scale protests and candlelit vigils in several major cities across China.

Much of Xinjiang has been locked down for three months, as the remote region battles an uptick in Covid cases that have also surged nationwide.

Maimaitimin, 27, now living in exile in Switzerland, was stunned when he heard through a friend about the deaths of his 48-year-old aunt, Haiernishahan Abdureheman, and four of her children aged between four and 13.

"My arms and legs shook and I felt dizzy, I wanted to throw up. I couldn't understand it," Maimaitimin, a member of the Muslim Uyghur minority, told AFP from his home in Zurich.

He lost contact with his aunt in May 2017, while Xinjiang was in the grip of a widespread security crackdown which saw an estimated million Uyghurs arbitrarily detained in prisons and internment camps, some simply for speaking to relatives overseas.

"She was a housewife, her whole life was devoted to taking care of her kids and educating them well," he said, bursting into tears.

"Five years later I really could not imagine I would hear about my relatives in this way."

A photo of his aunt verified by Maimaitimin shows her sitting beside her four young children on a couch in a beautifully decorated living room.

"Now I still feel terrible, I can't cope," he said.

- Three-hour blaze -

Online posts circulating on both Chinese and overseas social media platforms since Friday have claimed that lengthy Covid lockdowns in Urumqi hampered rescue attempts.

Social media videos show water sprayed from a fire engine parked outside the compound barely reaching the burning windows, while in another the dying screams of residents trapped inside can be heard.

State media said the fire took three hours to be extinguished.

City officials later claimed the apartment was in a low-risk area where residents could leave their homes freely, but acknowledged there were cars and bollards blocking the fire engine's path.

"Some residents had a weak ability to rescue themselves ... and did not carry out effective fire fighting or escape in time to rescue themselves," Li Wensheng, head of the city fire rescue service, said Friday.

However, some witnesses and social media users later claimed the building's doors were locked shut.

In one viral screenshot of a residents' chat group, Maimaitimin identified his other male cousin begging neighbours to save his mother and siblings.

"I can't contact the people in (flat) 1901 and don't know their circumstances, they can't open the door. Can you break open the door? There are children inside," read the texts from his surviving cousin, who was not in Urumqi at the time.

Maimaitimin believes that his family were not rescued in time because they were Uyghur and lived in a Uyghur-majority neighbourhood in the city's Tianshan district.

Chinese officials have not yet revealed the identities of the deceased, but there is widespread online speculation that the real death toll was higher.

A photo circulating on social media of the building's charred remains showed blackened, destroyed windows on six floors of the building.

"I will never trust the Chinese government. If Uyghurs protested, they would choke them dead," he said.

"I think that protesters will be caught, and (Uyghurs) will be put under even stricter control.

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Protests across China as anger mounts over zero-Covid policy
Beijing (AFP) Nov 27, 2022
Angry crowds took to the streets in Shanghai early on Sunday, and videos on social media showed protests in other cities across China, as public opposition to the government's hardline zero-Covid policy mounts. A deadly fire on Thursday in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang region, has spurred an outpouring of anger as many social media users blamed lengthy Covid lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts. China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid strategy, with authoriti ... read more