Police detain 4 in Guangzhou after COVID protests

Police in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou have detained at least four people for more than a week after they attended protests against COVID-19 restrictions in late November, according to activists, family members and friends of the detained.
While many who attended protests in cities across China last month were released after being held for 24 hours – the legal limit on detention before police must file charges – the four Guangzhou residents as of Wednesday have been held for a week and a half.
The detentions came a week after a burst of nationwide protests in the last weekend in November where people demanded freedom from China’s strict pandemic restrictions across several cities in a rare display of direct defiance against the central government. Protesters took to the streets despite great personal risk, knowing that surveillance cameras were pervasive and their social media would be tracked by police.
Now, what the protesters feared – that police would arrest them after the initial wave of action had passed – is happening in Guangzhou.