Protests against Covid lockdowns sweep China, challenging Xi Jinping

In the capital, Beijing, students at Tsinghua, one of China’s most prestigious universities, shouted “We want democratic rule of law, we want freedom of speech.”

HONG KONG — Protesters increasingly fed up with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “zero-Covid” restrictions rallied in cities across the country over the weekend, in a widespread show of resistance to Communist Party rule that has not been seen in decades.

Crowds in some of China’s biggest cities, angered by a deadly fire in the western Xinjiang region