Hundreds of workers at a Covid test kit facility have battled with Chinese police after a number of them were abruptly sacked and denied pay following the relaxation of restrictions.
As a result of the Chinese government's abandonment of its zero-Covid policy, the manufacturer Zybio reportedly laid off employees and withheld pay from others. According to YouTube footage, protests subsequently erupted in the city of Chongqing in southern China. Zybio, a manufacturer of Covid-19 antigen test kits, did not respond immediately.
Videos depicted individuals yelling, "return our money," and hurling traffic cones, boxes, and stools at riot-shielded cops. Test kits are seen flying out of several of the packages.
The weekend demonstration occurred as China dealt with last month's abrupt reversal of a zero-Covid policy, which negatively impacted the country's economic growth and led to widespread popular discontent.
The dramatic reversal by China followed protests in multiple towns and institutions against its zero-Covid strategy.
The Chinese government has spent most of the previous three years attempting to eradicate any signs of the virus through obligatory quarantines, mass lockdowns, and frequent testing of millions of people.
Such mass testing has relied on nucleic acid tests, and Zybio's Chinese antigen test kits have been distributed primarily. However, since China halted bulk testing at the beginning of December, the demand for home-based antigen tests has increased dramatically.
Posts on social media suggested that Zybio had recently hired employees and then abruptly fired them. According to various social media users, the confrontation between police and demonstrators occurred early Saturday evening into Sunday. On Sunday, it appeared that searches for the conflict were restricted on the Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo.
According to a YouTube video, police used loudspeakers to warn protesters in the industrial park to "cease illegal activities." Police declined to comment.
Foreign visitors and returning residents no longer had to undergo costly and time-consuming quarantine as of Sunday, when China abolished practically all of its border restrictions. China also reopened its border with Hong Kong for the first time in three years, allowing Hongkongers to travel to the mainland to reunite with family members.
China has taken these measures in response to extraordinary infections and international charges of a lack of transparency about case counts, fatalities, and genetic sequencing data.
China's National Health Commission reported just over 7,000 new cases and two deaths on Sunday, but local provinces reported up to one million new topics daily.
As the Lunar New Year travel period commenced over the weekend, China is now preparing for the virus to spread further. People return to their hometowns to rejoice during this 40-day travel period, which is usually the world's largest annual migration.
