China: BBC reporter arrested and ill

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Police operation in Shanghai (on November 27)

Photo: CASEY HALL / REUTERS

These are unusual images that are currently coming from China.

In many cities, people are taking to the streets, their anger directed primarily against the country's strict corona policy.

Such public expressions of displeasure are extremely rare – especially in this mass.

The government reacted correspondingly nervously and allowed the security forces to intervene, sometimes roughly.

Now there has apparently also been an attack on an international media representative.

A BBC reporter has been arrested in Shanghai and says he was mistreated by the Chinese police.

"The BBC is extremely concerned at the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the Shanghai protests," a spokesman for the British broadcaster said.

Lawrence was punched and kicked by police officers during the arrest, even though he was accredited as a journalist.

He was only released hours later.

There has been no official explanation or apology for the incident from the Chinese authorities, the spokesman said.

The fact that the police claimed upon release that Lawrence had only been taken into custody to protect him from a corona infection in the crowd is "not a credible explanation".

Loud demands for contact with the consulate

Photos and videos were posted online of a man being taken away by police shouting for someone to call the consulate immediately.

On his Twitter account, Lawrence had shortly before described impressions of the protests, which are extremely unusual in China and in which he estimates that several hundred people took part.

Not only in Shanghai, but also in the capital Beijing and other megacities, hundreds of demonstrators roamed the streets over the weekend.

Videos from Shanghai, which circulated on the Internet despite state censorship, contained shouts such as »Down with the Communist Party!

Down with Xi Jinping!'

Under the current head of state and party leader, the People's Republic is pursuing a strict zero-Covid strategy that tries to contain any local flare-up of the virus with rigid isolation methods.

jok/dpa