Protesters in Jinan, China, have clashed with coronavirus enforcement officials as frustration over the country’s zero-COVID policy continues.

The clips, shared on social media and verified by Sky News, show a crowd trying to move large tables from in front of a group of hazmat-clad personnel.

Elsewhere, protests against China’s strict lockdown measures were largely paused as police were out in force on Beijing’s streets and temperatures dropped well below freezing.

In Shanghai, Nanjing, and other cities where online calls to gather were issued it remained quiet.

The UK’s House of Commons has been discussing the protests after an urgent question was raised over the arrest of a BBC journalist.

On Sunday night, the BBC said one of its staff members, Ed Lawrence, was working as an “accredited journalist” when he was “beaten and kicked by police”.

Foreign office minister David Rutley said: “We are calling in the Chinese ambassador to make clear the unacceptable and unwarranted nature of these actions, the importance of freedom of speech, and to demand a full and thorough explanation.

More on Covid-19

Related Topics:

“We recognise that the COVID-related restrictions in China are challenging for the Chinese people, and we urge the Chinese authorities to respect the rights of those who decide to express their views about the situation.”

China’s foreign ministry accused the BBC of playing the victim.

Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular news conference in Beijing journalists should not engage in activities unrelated to their role.

China’s ambassador to UK summoned to foreign office

China’s ambassador to the UK was summoned to the foreign office amid a diplomatic row over the journalist’s arrest.

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, on Monday described the incident as “deeply disturbing”, while No 10 condemned the “shocking and unacceptable” arrest and said journalists “must be able to do their jobs without fear of intimidation”.

“The BBC has been clear one of their journalists was detained and beaten by police when covering these protests,” a source from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said.

“We have made it clear this behaviour by the Chinese authorities is completely unacceptable.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a speech last night that the “golden era” between the UK and China was over.

The Chinese ambassador to the UK, HE Zheng Zeguang, issued a statement on Monday, regarding the arrest of the BBC journalist and the UK’s claim that he was “arrested” and “beaten” by Chinese police.

It said: “What really happened was that on the night of 27 November, to maintain public order, local police in Shanghai asked people who had gathered at a crossroads to leave. One of those at the scene was a resident journalist from the BBC.

“The journalist, the entire time, did not identify himself as a journalist and refused to cooperate with the police’s law enforcement efforts. The police then had to take him away from the scene. After verifying his identity, the police allowed him to leave.

“The UK side is now falsely claiming that the journalist had been ‘arrested’?and ‘beaten’ by Chinese police. Such a groundless accusation is a distortion of the truth and malicious slander and is totally unacceptable to the Chinese side.”

He added: “Foreign journalists have the right to report news in China, but they need to follow Chinese laws and regulations while doing their work.

“We urge the UK side to enhance its education of resident journalists sent to China by UK media outlets, request them to follow local laws and regulations and the journalism ethics and not engage in activities incompatible with their capacity as journalists.

“The UK side must respect facts, be prudent in what it says or does and stop its practice of double standards.”

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player


2:38

Why are people protesting in China?

Unprecedented level of rebellion

Rallies against China‘s unusually strict zero-COVID measures spread to several cities over the weekend in the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades.

Some regulations were eased, apparently to try to quell public anger, but the government showed no sign of backing down on its larger coronavirus strategy, and analysts expect authorities to quickly silence the dissent.

From the streets of several Chinese cities to dozens of university campuses, protesters have shown an unprecedented level of rebellion.

Images and videos circulated online show students at universities in cities including Nanjing and Beijing holding up white paper – largely seen as a tactic used to evade censorship or arrest.

Some are accompanied by the Chinese hashtag, ????, which translates as the “white paper revolution”.

Now, the head of the International Monetary Fund said problems within the world economy – which is struggling with a disrupted food supply and energy crisis – would ease if China moved away from its extensive lockdown programme.

‘F*** Xi Jinping’ – A constant watch is being kept by police and people are still angry

A constant watch is being kept by police at the Shanghai crossroads where protests were held, and everyone knows it.

Earlier in the week, this place has been either totally inaccessible or incredibly tense.

There was a sense today that something had shifted, things felt less fraught, quieter, quashed.

It felt the police knew no one would attempt any action here today.

We were tacitly allowed to film in places that just one day before would have been completely impossible.

Authorities made us aware they were watching us, but they didn’t stop us.

You could almost sense what their orders must have been: don’t intervene, act normal, nothing to see here.

But there were signs of the silencing.

A makeshift barrier had been erected around a ledge where yesterday quiet protestors had sat, and around the corner, a courtyard has been temporality commandeered, crammed with police vans, back up ready if necessary.

People were much more reluctant to speak to us today, understandable given how clear the threat now felt

One of many did approach us when we saw we were filming, and what he said was extraordinary.

“F*** Xi Jinping” was his opening gambit. It can’t be overstated just how incredibly rare a statement like this is.

“This is all totally ridiculous,” he said, waving at barriers erected along the road.

“We’ve lived here for 40 years, and we’ve never been anything like this.

“Everyone here sympathises, even the police. Mark my word, this is a turning point.”

That certainly didn’t feel like a certainty here, many people were just getting on with their lives.

But the COVID-19 drudgery continues, queues to get tested in the cold and the rain remain.

The underlying grievance has not gone away, and people are still angry.

Dating apps and coded messages

With China’s official media remaining quiet on any reports of the protests, opponents of the government’s anti-COVID curbs are resorting to dating apps to evade censors, in a high-tech game of cat and mouse.

Protesters who do use WeChat – the most popular but highly censored communications app – keep information to a bare minimum.

Locations of planned gatherings are given without explanation or conveyed with map coordinates or by a faint map in the background of a post.

Protesters have also been using virtual private networks (VPNs) and the Telegram app to coordinate.

VPNs are illegal for most people in China, while the Telegram app is blocked from China’s internet.

Disneyland closes over COVID curbs

Protests have spiralled after 10 people were killed during a fire in a high-rise block, with people believing strict lockdown rules prevented residents from fleeing and hampered efforts to tackle the blaze.

China has been aggressively pursuing a zero-COVID policy and while this has kept the official death toll in the thousands, it has come at a cost to the country’s citizens and economy.

Read more:
In China, tensions remain high
Les Mis revolution song plays
The ‘golden era’ is over

On Tuesday, Disneyland announced it would be closing due to COVID restrictions.

“In order to follow the requirement of pandemic prevention and control, Shanghai Disneyland will be temporarily closed starting Tuesday, 29 November,” the park said in a statement.

“We will notify guests as soon as we have a confirmed date to resume operations.”