The United Nations urged China to respect the right to peaceful protests as the crackdown continued on the citizens. In the official statement, the UN requested the Chinese government to not detain or use force against the protestors in the country and to allow them to show their dissent in a peaceful manner. In the past few weeks, several parts of China have seen protests in response to the latest lockdowns imposed by the Chinese Communist Party as part of the “Zero Covid” policy.
“We call on the authorities to respond to protests in line with international human rights laws and standards. No one should be arbitrarily detained for peacefully expressing their opinions,” news agency AFP quoted UN Human Rights Office spokesman Jeremy Laurence as saying.
The United States also weighed in on the current situation in China and said that the strategy is unlikely to work if the citizens are not convinced. A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council also told Reuters that China should not stop people from protesting peacefully.
“We’ve said that zero-COVID is not a policy we are pursuing here in the United States. And as we have said, we think it’s going to be very difficult for the People’s Republic of China to be able to contain this virus through their zero-COVID strategy,” the spokesperson said.
The Chinese authorities have barricaded parts of several cities as the protests continued over the restrictions. The number of cases has gone up by a bit but the tough lockdowns have resulted in many citizens even protesting the various controversies and corruptions allegations related to the Xi Jinping-government.
