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Chinese migrant workers protest amid Covid-19 lockdowns in Guangzhou textile hub
- Residents confirm unrest erupted on Monday night in urban villages in Haizhu district, home to the country’s biggest fabric market
- Textile industry employees have been forced to return to their home provinces as coronavirus cases spike
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Migrant workers in China’s southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou staged a rare protest at a textile compound on Monday night amid lockdowns and a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases.
Guangzhou, a city of 19 million people, reported 5,124 local infections for Monday, most of them in the city’s Haizhu district, which is home to China’s largest fabric market and a centre for textile production.
On Monday night, social media posts and videos showed hundreds of residents breaking through lockdown barriers, breaching checkpoints and marching on the streets of the city’s dense and unregulated urban villages. Some even got into fist fights with local health authorities and volunteers in protective gear.
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Covid lockdowns spark rare protest in southern Chinese city of Guangzhou
Covid lockdowns spark rare protest in southern Chinese city of Guangzhou
In some video clips, residents who appeared to be migrant workers complained of a lack of supplies and the skyrocketing price of daily necessities. The Post could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos and posts.
Marrisa, a resident living opposite an urban village, said she witnessed one of the incidents.
She said that around 8.45pm, one or two people were shouting in a dialect other than Cantonese. About 10 to 15 minutes later, “the whole area was overwhelmed with yells from upstairs to downstairs”, she said.
“After a while, people began to gather, violently beat the corrugated iron fences [that seal off the buildings] and smashed the checkpoint. Then many volunteers and police headed towards them.”
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