SHANGHAI—Several demonstrators who were apprehended for publicly protesting China’s then-ongoing zero-COVID policy remain in detention, face charges or have not been heard from, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday.
In late November, protests broke out in numerous cities across China, calling for an end to the country’s nearly three years of strict enforcement of the zero-COVID policy. Many demonstrators held up blank sheets of white paper, which became a symbol of their discontent.
Some protestors also shouted slogans calling for the ouster of Chinese Leader Xi Jinping or the Chinese Communist Party.
The protests, unprecedented in Xi’s decade in power, which has seen an increasingly heavy crackdown on dissent, petered out within days amid a heavy police presence. Numerous individuals were apprehended and subsequently released, protesters, lawyers, and academics told Reuters at the time, adding that they were concerned that some could face consequences later….