November 29, 2022: The United Nations (UN) on Monday urged China to respect the right to peaceful protests in the country. The UN asked Chinese government not to detain people just for participating in the peaceful agitation, as Beijing tries to control the nationwide series of protests and demonstrations.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said, “The Chinese government should respect the fundamental rights of people across China to peacefully protest the government’s draconian zero Covid restrictions and to call for freedom and human rights”.

Demonstrations are held across China against the strict enforcement of its zero-Covid policy. Under the new rule, authorities have blocked apartment buildings or even cordoned off a neighborhood once a resident tests Covid-19 positive, causing great inconvenience to the people.

Several regions in China had been under lockdown for more than three months, and people blamed the lockdown for the deaths.

The Chinese police have even barricaded a street in Shanghai where protesters have gathered for the last two nights in anticipation of further rallies against the government's rigid policies to tackle Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

Protesters want the Chinese government to lift the lockdown. Meanwhile, some groups decried censorship and called for democracy and an end to the rule of President Xi Jinping.