In a rare, widespread display of public discontent that has moved beyond social media to some of China's major roads and most prestigious colleges, protesters in China have taken to writing on blank sheets of paper to vent their rage about COVID-19 restrictions. Online images and videos showed university students silently protesting while holding up blank sheets of paper in Nanjing and Beijing, among other locations. This method was employed in part to avoid censorship or detention. Even though much of the globe seeks to coexist with the coronavirus, China is upholding its strict zero-COVID policy. An apartment fire that killed 10 people on Thursday in Urumqi, a remote western city where some residents had been under COVID lockdown for as long as 100 days, set off the most recent wave of unrest. This fueled speculation that the COVID lockdown measures may have made it difficult for residents to flee.

Key Points

• In a rare, widespread display of public discontent that has moved beyond social media to some of China's major roads and most prestigious colleges, protesters in China have taken to writing on blank sheets of paper to vent their rage about COVID-19 restrictions.

• An apartment fire that killed 10 people on Thursday in Urumqi, a remote western city where some residents had been under COVID lockdown for as long as 100 days, set off the most recent wave of unrest.

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