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Massive Protest Breaks Out in China’s Hubei Province, Ground Zero for the Coronavirus


A huge protest march swept out of China’s Hubei province on Friday, with thousands of angry residents pouring across a bridge into neighboring Jiangxi province and clashing with police.

The capital city of Hubei province is Wuhan, ground zero for the coronavirus pandemic.

A huge protest march swept out of China’s Hubei province on Friday, with thousands of angry residents pouring across a bridge into neighboring Jiangxi province and clashing with police.


The capital city of Hubei province is Wuhan, ground zero for the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the “Things China Doesn’t Want You to Know” Twitter account quoted above, there are rumors the riot was kicked off by a fight between Hubei and Jiangxi police officers. The Hubei police were reportedly angered by Jiangxi police crossing into their jurisdiction.

A number of Hubei police officers appear to have joined the civilian demonstrators in their march toward Jiangxi, and evidently raised few objections when the civilians decided to trash a few Jiangxi police cars and club riot police with their own shields.

Noted Chinese dissident Badiucao heard rumors that the fight broke out because Jiangxi police resisted orders to open the border to Hubei after the coronavirus lockdown officially ended on Wednesday. One reason for their reluctance, according to Badiucao, is that “no one trusts the official numbers” for reduced coronavirus infections in Hubei, not even the police.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported the demonstration was still going strong after eight hours of escalating confrontations:

Jiangxi police on a checkpoint on the bridge had allowed a group of migrant workers stranded during the lockdown to pass, but had refused to allow Hubei residents through.

After angry disputes broke out, Jiangxi police sent in riot police to seal off the entrance to Jiujiang.

Video footage posted to YouTube showed thousands of people marching up the approach road to the bridge, shoulder to shoulder with uniformed police from Hubei, shouting “Go Hubei! Go Hubei!”

A Hubei resident told RFA people from the province feel stigmatized and discriminated against, as they are still unwelcome in some other parts of China and treated poorly even when allowed to enter.

RFA confirmed on Friday morning that the bridge battle broke out after Jiangxi police “injured Hubei police in the morning.” The civilian protesters expressed anger at the way they have been treated during the coronavirus epidemic.

Canada’s Globe and Mail quoted a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official yelling at the crowd through a loudspeaker and telling them it was “dangerous” to gather on the bridge due to “the risk of virus infection,” but the warning did not appear to be widely heeded.

The Communist Party’s People’s Daily did report on the bridge conflict even as social media videos were scrubbed, describing it as “regrettable.”

Canada’s Globe and Mail quoted a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official yelling at the crowd through a loudspeaker and telling them it was “dangerous” to gather on the bridge due to “the risk of virus infection,” but the warning did not appear to be widely heeded.

The Communist Party’s People’s Daily did report on the bridge conflict even as social media videos were scrubbed, describing it as “regrettable.”

Story cited here.

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