Washington. The US government responded cautiously on Monday to the demonstrations that shook the main cities of China, although he asked that the right of the citizens of that country to protest peacefully be respected and he was critical of the “zero covid” policy.
“People should have the right to peacefully assemble and protest against policies, laws or regulations with which they disagree. The White House supports the right to peaceful protest,” said John Kirby, one of the White House spokesmen, when asked about discontent in China at a press conference.
Kirby’s statements mark Washington’s first response to the protests in China, after both US President Joe Biden and his national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Kirby explained that Biden is closely monitoring and is “watching” the development of the demonstrations.
Another spokesman for the White House, Already out of the spotlight of the press conference in which Kirby spoke, he told Efe that the United States believes that it will be “very difficult” for China to contain the virus with its “zero covid” policies.
“We have said that everyone has the right to protest peacefully, here in the United States and around the world. That includes China,” that spokesperson added.
This weekend’s protests in China have left an unknown number of people detained, including at least two Western media correspondents.
The outrage over the death of 10 people in an apparently confined building in the city of Urumqi (northwest) on November 24, turned into unprecedented vigils and protests on Sunday in many parts of the country, such as Beijing or the aforementioned Shanghai.
Meanwhile, the numbers of new infections in China broke their record for the fifth consecutive day on Monday with 40,347 cases detected the day before, of which 36,525 (90.5%) are asymptomatic.
In addition, around two million people throughout the country are under centralized quarantine or medical observation for being infected or for being close contacts of those infected, not including citizens under generalized confinement imposed by local authorities.
