Thousands take to the streets as protests sweep across China against restrictive Covid lockdowns

Massive protests swept across China as thousands took to the streets to oppose the country's restrictive lockdowns.

The country continues to pursue a zero Covid policy which has regularly seen it lock down millions of people at any one time for the past few years.

However, as Covid rates in China reach record highs and the rest of the world lives openly and freely with the virus, the public is fed up with Xi Jinping's crackdowns.

Protests have been fueled by fury over a deadly fire in the western region of Xinjiang that reportedly killed ten people, including a child, and students are also at the heart of anti-lockdown protests.

The blaze became a lightning rod for public anger and Covid protesters because anti-virus measures, such as barriers to keep people indoors, hampered any emergency response and made that the fire burned violently for three hours.

A fire that killed ten people became a lightning rod for Covid protests (

Picture:

AFP via Getty Images)

The past few days have been rocked by protests demanding an end to the Covid crackdown and justice for those who died in the blaze. But more and more anti-protest protests seem to be popping up every hour and today protests broke out at some 50 universities.

At Tsinghua University, thousands of students took to the streets to publicly protest against the government and its Covid approach. Videos show the brave students chanting against the lockdown.

Students have apparently been at the heart of a number of these protests, denying the will of the autocratic Chinese Communist Party.