On November 27 and 28 2022, tens of thousands of citizens took part in unprecedented protests in major cities and 75 university campuses across China, demanding freedom and an end to zero-COVID policies. This followed violent clashes in Zhengzhou between fed-up iPhone workers and the police. How did it come to this?

After local prevarication in Wuhan in December 2019 and January 2020 about the seriousness of COVID-19, China resorted to an intense national mobilisation campaign to keep the virus under control. This response enabled an economic rebound in late 2020 and 2021.

But China’s zero-COVID response to the Omicron variant after March 2022 has become all-encompassing, unpredictable and economically ruinous. A logic of political control has pushed aside pragmatic health and economic policy. China’s urban public is frustrated.