Beijing police arrested at least 3 people in their homes who had attended a peaceful protest against China's zero-COVID measures: report

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Beijing police arrested at least 3 people in their homes who had attended a peaceful protest against China's zero-COVID measures: report
Protesters holding up white signs in Beijing on November 27.Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
  • At least three people were arrested in their homes in Beijing on Monday, reported The Straits Times.
  • The people were arrested after attending a Sunday protest in the capital, per the outlet.
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Police took at least three people from their homes in Beijing on Monday after they attended a peaceful protest in the Chinese capital on Sunday, according to The Straits Times.

The three detained people had attended a protest near Beijing's Liangma River, per the Singapore-based broadsheet. The Straits Times reported that several other people were questioned by the police. Insider was not able to independently verify the report.

The arrests came after hundreds of protesters gathered at a riverbank in Beijing, chanting for freedom and for the Chinese government's COVID-zero restrictions to come to an end.

Videos posted on Twitter from the Liangma River protest on Sunday showed people holding up pieces of white paper and shouting slogans like: "No to our leaders, yes to voting. We won't be slaves, we are citizens."

Carrying a sheet of blank paper has emerged as a new symbol of defiance against the government. Protesters were seen holding blank signs at rallies in all of China's major cities over Thanksgiving weekend.

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The protests in Chinese cities were largely peaceful, but some protesters — and a BBC journalist named Edward Lawrence — were met with violence in Shanghai.

A BBC spokesperson told Insider that Lawrence was "beaten and kicked by the police."

"It is very worrying that one of our journalists was attacked in this way whilst carrying out his duties," the BBC spokesperson told Insider in a statement. "We have had no official explanation or apology from the Chinese authorities, beyond a claim by the officials who later released him that they had arrested him for his own good in case he caught Covid from the crowd."

Separately, a man known as Chen who was at a peaceful protest in Shanghai told Radio Free Asia that he was grabbed and hung upside down by Chinese police before being bundled onto a bus. The man, who had joined the protest along Shanghai's Urumqi Road, said the police were moving into the crowd indiscriminately and brutalizing peaceful protesters.

Representatives from China's international press center did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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