Popular protest is not diminishing in China, despite the abandonment of its zero Covid policy. Clashes erupted between police and workers at a SARS-CoV-2 test kit factory in an industrial park in the southwestern city of Chongqing.
Footage circulating on social media on Sunday (January 8) shows people throwing crates at a group of uniformed men, sending what appear to be test kits flying. In another sequence, a crowd can be seen facing lined police at night as loudspeakers broadcast a warning asking protesters to “stop their illegal activities”.
A netizen who posted a video of the scene wrote in the caption that many workers had not been paid. According to other publications, the pharmaceutical company Zybio, based in Chongqing, would have suddenly laid off workers who had been recruited in recent weeks.
“All workers’ demands are of an economic nature”said in a video a man who says he is “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist”. He insisted there was no political motive behind the protest.
Strong demand for test kits
According to testimonies published on social networks, the clashes took place on the night of Saturday to Sunday, although AFP could not determine the precise moment when the images were shot. Brown and white industrial buildings with distinct patterns can be seen in the background of the videos, matching previous footage of Zybio’s facilities in Dadukou District’s Jianqiao Industrial Park.
The hashtag “Chongqing Dadukou Pharmaceutical Factory” appeared to be censored on popular social network Weibo on Sunday, with only one post from the day before still visible describing the protest as a “interesting topic”.
China is experiencing a resurgence in the Covid-19 outbreak as the government backed away from its zero-tolerance strategy for the virus, prompting a spike in demand for testing kits and medicine. In December, the authorities restarted the production lines of more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies while some companies hired staff to meet the increase in demand.