VOCABULARY:

1. drive - to force people or animals to move or leave

2. step down - to quit or retire from an important position

3. chant - to say or shout a phrase repeatedly

ARTICLE:

Anti-Lockdown Protests Call for China's Xi to Step Down

Chinese protesters angry with strict anti-coronavirus rules have called for the country's leader to resign, as authorities in at least eight cities tried to stop demonstrations on Sunday, November 27.

The protests are the most widespread show of opposition to the ruling party in decades.

On November 27, police drove away demonstrators in Shanghai who called for President Xi Jinping to step down and for an end to the Chinese Communist Party's one-party rule — but hours later, the protesters returned.

A video of the Shanghai protest shows people chanting: "Xi Jinping! Step down! CCP! Step down!"

Three years after the pandemic began, China is the only major country still trying to stop the transmission of COVID-19. Its "zero COVID" strategy has restricted access to neighborhoods for weeks at a time. Some cities test millions of residents for the virus every day.

This has kept China's infection numbers lower than those of the US and other major countries. However, people who are quarantined at home in some areas say they don't have enough food and medicine.

The current protests began after a fire on November 24 killed at least 10 people in an apartment building in the city of Urumqi, where some have been locked in their homes for four months.

The deaths led to angry questions online about whether firefighters or people trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other restrictions.

The Shanghai protests began late on November 26, when about 300 people gathered on a street named after Urumqi, bringing candles, flowers and signs to remember the victims of the fire.

In a park on the east side of Beijing, about 200 people protested by holding up blank pieces of paper — a symbol of opposition to the ruling party's censorship.

About 2,000 students gathered at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and social media posts said there were demonstrations at 50 universities.