Protests erupted across China as the government implemented a strict Covid lockdown following a rise in cases in the country. In a rare display of populist rage against the government, hundreds of people demonstrated against China's zero-Covid policy on Sunday in the nation's largest cities. Some of whom chanted  Xi Jinping, step down! CCP, step down in Mandarin. The demonstrations follow against a backdrop of mounting public frustration with China's zero-tolerance policy toward the virus.

Violence-filled rallies have recently broken out from Zhengzhou to Guangzhou in response to Covid restrictions and snap lockdowns, which have angered people across the nation.
 Chinese citizens demanded the resignation of the Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping, in protest over the deaths of at least 10 people in an apartment fire in Xinjiang, which likely occurred when the region was under a strict Covid lockdown. Such demands are uncommon in China, where voicing outright criticism of the leadership or the president may result in serious repercussions. As the public grows weary of unexpected lockdowns, protracted quarantines, and extensive testing operations, they are becoming increasingly unhappy with China's tough antivirus stance.

 At least 400 people congregated for several hours on the banks of a river in Beijing, China's capital, on Sunday night. Some shouted: "We are all Xinjiang people! Go Chinese people". People stayed in the area until the wee hours of the morning, chanting and brandishing blank pieces of paper as a symbol of censorship, as cars honked in solidarity. Students Protest at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua 

University, between 200 and 300 students demonstrated against lockdowns. Students were heard yelling,  Democracy and the rule of law, freedom of expression,  in a video that appeared to have been filmed in the same place but was shortly removed. Videos of similar protests from Peking University and campuses in Xi'an, Guangzhou, and Wuhan also went viral on social media. Authorities and demonstrators engaged in physical altercations in downtown Shanghai, China's largest city, as police attempted to clear the area after an earlier demonstration on the Street, which has the Mandarin name of Urumqi.  Several livestreams that were quickly censored showed crowds going through the streets celebrating and recording on their phones in Wuhan, the central megacity where the coronavirus first appeared. 

Shanghai —Protestors pushed to the brink by China's strict COVID measures in Shanghai called for the removal of the country's all-powerful leader and clashed with police Sunday as crowds took to the streets in several cities in an astounding challenge to the government. Police forcibly cleared the demonstrators in China's financial capital who called for Xi Jinping's resignation and the end of the Chinese Communist Party's rule — but hours later people rallied again in the same spot, and social media reports indicated protests also spread to at least seven  other cities, including the capital of Beijing, and dozens of university campuses. Large scale protests are exceedingly rare in China, where public expressions of dissent are routinely stifled  —  but a direct rebuke of Xi, the country's most powerful leader in decades, is extraordinary.