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The largest protests in a generation erupted in cities across China over the weekend against the government’s zero-Covid policy. 
The most widely used symbol in the demonstrations has been a blank sheet of paper. It symbolises censorship, and may also, some Twitter users pointed out, be read as a reference to the deaths last week of , Xinjiang, which was blamed on lockdown restrictions that protesters believe prevented the residents from escaping in time. In China, white is a colour used at funerals. But protesters have found other creative ways to express their anger, as Helen Davidson explains

Protesters scuffled with police on Tuesday night, according to witnesses and footage. Video shared on social media shows security personnel in hazmat suits forming shoulder-to-shoulder ranks and taking cover under riot shields to make their way down a street in Haizhu district as protesters threw objects.
On Wednesday afternoon, authorities announced a lifting of Covid lockdowns in about half of the districts across the southern city of Guangzhou. The easing of restrictions, which came despite rising cases in the city, did not extend to all districts, including parts of Haizhu.
The city recorded almost 7,000 Covid cases on Tuesday. In Haizhu, there have been several protests and clashes with police over the past month, with the latest incident escalating dramatically on Friday

Although security forces have reasserted control in many cities, rebellions against Beijing’s strict Covid rules have rocked the southern city of Guangzhou this week.

Chinese leader who oversaw economic growth and a stable relationship with the US, and encouraged his country to ‘enter the world’
Jiang Zemin, who has died aged 96, was put in charge of the Chinese Communist party as its general secretary in May 1989 amid the turmoil of , in a move that destroyed any chance of a peaceful outcome to the protests. By siding with the conservative forces who bloodily suppressed the students’ call for democracy and reform, Jiang secured his succession to the presidency four years later.
By the time he retired in 2002, China had been transformed. Shopping centres rose along the Avenue of Everlasting Peace, where tanks and armoured cars had killed protesters. Young families ate in McDonald’s and KFC instead of buying pancakes from street vendors, and a new metro ran under the square, carrying the tens of thousands who once had cycled to work. And in the year before Jiang stepped down, China “entered the world” – the phrase used by the Chinese media for . In spite of some shaky episodes, Jiang also succeeded in building a stable relationship with the US.

Tammel Esco, 42, has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison after he brutally punched and stomped an Asian woman in Yonkers in March 2022.

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Four people give their take on the protests against China’s zero-Covid policy
Protests against China’s zero-Covid policy have continued in cities including Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu. The protests are a remarkable expression of defiance in a country where this type of public dissent is rare. They often feature people holding up blank sheets of paper, .
Four people in various Chinese cities spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity to share their views on the protests.

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Some Chinese immigrants expressed solidarity with the protesters. But as videos of police making arrests leak, they worried for the protesters’ safety.

Mr. Jiang, a wily and garrulous politician, presided over a decade of meteoric economic growth in the post-Tiananmen era.

What the zero-Covid protests say about China. Plus: humans versus nature at Cop15
Discontent over China’s zero-Covid suppression policy came to a head last weekend in a series of unprecedented protests across the country. The civil disobedience – remarkable just for the fact it was happening at all in a state where such behaviour is rarely tolerated – seemed to have been smothered by police by the start of the week. Even so it revealed to the world signs of a hitherto unseen fracture in China’s totalitarian political system.
The magazine’s cover design this week reflects the power of blank paper and the abstract creativity used by protesters to express their feelings in such an oppressive environment. As one Beijing resident said: “We launched the blank paper remembrance movement. Do we say anything on the paper? No. All accusations are in our hearts. All thoughts are in our hearts.”