A number of House Republicans are praising the widespread protests in China that have erupted over the communist country's "zero COVID" policy.
The authoritarian policy caught the attention of the world last week, as videos showed a fire at a physically locked down apartment building in the northwestern city of Urumqi, in China's Xinjiang region, which killed 10 people and injured nine others. Newsweek reports that some blamed the tragedy on the strict lockdown measures imposed by the Chinese Communist Party in the wake of rising COVID infections.
Early Sunday morning, protesters in Shanghai chanted "Xi Jinping! Step down! CCP! Step down!" while standing on a road named for Urumqi, The Associated Press reported.
Crowds returned to the street hours after being cleared by police, chanting "We don't want PCR tests, we want freedom!"
World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom said earlier this year that the strategy implemented by Chinese officials was not "sustainable considering the behavior of the virus."
While China's zero COVID policy has brought entire cities and businesses to a standstill over the past two years, the government has maintained that there have been few infections and deaths because of it.
Data released by Johns Hopkins University, however, indicate that the number of COVID cases in China jumped by more than 490% from Oct. 26 to Nov. 26.
"China has had enough of the COVID tyranny," Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., tweeted on Monday. "These types of draconian lockdowns are ineffective and crumble societies."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tweeted that she was "praying" for the Chinese demonstrators in cities including the capital Beijing and Shanghai.
"The CCP has abused China's people long enough," she said Monday. "Covid has been an evil tool of oppression. It started in Wuhan, it ends in Wuhan."
Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert said, "The people of China are standing up and demanding freedom, even knowing the major risk of doing so in their country."
"People are born to be free, not oppressed by government regimes," she tweeted. "Keep fighting for freedom!"
Boebert was a frequently outspoken critic when it came to COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
Two days before her appearance at last year's Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, the Centennial State congresswoman compared President Joe Biden's coronavirus "surge response teams" to the actions of dictator Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. "Did I wake up in Communist China?" she rhetorically asked.
New videos of the continued unrest in China have shown protestors being dragged away by authorities while Western journalists have also allegedly been assaulted. Ed Lawrence, a camera operator for the BBC's China bureau, was reportedly handcuffed and arrested on video.
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