Residents in Tibet’s regional capital of Lhasa took to the streets to protest harsh COVID-19 measures, a rare demonstration in the heavily policed city.
Video footage showed hundreds of people, including both native Tibetans and Han Chinese migrants, taking part in the demonstrations.
The videos, reportedly shot Wednesday, were shared on Chinese social media sites Douyin and Weibo before being taken down by authorities.
There was no sign of violence during the protests, which are believed to be the first demonstrations in Lhasa since 2008, when Tibetans took to the streets to protest the Chinese government’s treatment of the group.
Chinese authorities violently suppressed the 2008 demonstrations.
This week’s protests appeared to take place during the day and the night.
Lhasa has been locked down for more than two months as part of the government’s “zero-COVID” policy.
The policy has led to strict measures across the country whenever COVID-19 cases rise, from Shanghai in the east to Tibet in the West.
Rare protests have also broken out in cities such as Shanghai, where the entire city was placed on lockdown for two months during the summer.
On Friday, authorities in Shanghai ordered mass COVID-19 tests for residents in the city’s downtown Yangpu district – 1.3 million people – and ordered them to remain in their homes until at least the results are known.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
