Urgent vaccination push needed to quell China’s zero-Covid-19 protests

Every day, somewhere in China,

there is a

local

protest going on.

The country sees hundreds of strikes a year, from staff protesting against unpaid wages to gig economy workers demanding higher rates. What prevents these protests from reaching popular consciousness is that they almost always stay local and single-issue-based. They can be resolved quickly, then forgotten.

The past few days of protests over the zero-Covid-19 lockdowns are the opposite. They have been nationwide, broad-based, and combine popular anger over multiple issues in a manner unheard of since Tiananmen Square in 1989.