COVID-19 pandemic
In Urumqi, protesters shouted, "if we die, let's die together". The protesters wanted their government to lift the lockdown measures in neighbourhoods with little or no active cases of COVID-19. In Nanjing, university students held blank sheets of paper to show the little freedom of expression and autonomy they felt from the strict COVID-19 policies. In Shanghai, people gathered on the city's Urumqi Road to remember the victims of the fire and requested the government to free arrested protesters. In Beijing, protesters asked for democratic changes and the end to the strict COVID-19 rules.