Xinjiang loosens some restrictions after lockdown protests

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region have opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city’s draconian “zero-COVID” lockdown that had lasted more than three months. The displays of public defiance were fanned by anger over a fire in an apartment compound that had killed 10, according to the official death toll.

Emergency workers took three hours to extinguish the blaze in a delay many attributed to obstacles caused by anti-virus measures. Some Urumqi residents had their doors chained physically shut. Many in the city believe such brute-force tactics may have prevented residents from escaping in Friday’s fire and that the official death toll is an undercount.

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