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Rent protest in Wuhan shows unrest brewing post lockdown
- Most neighbourhoods in the city are still facing string restrictions on movement and there’s little business traffic
- Wuhan officially emerged on Wednesday from a mass quarantine put in place on 23 January
Dozens of small shop owners protested outside one of Wuhan’s biggest shopping malls to demand a cut in rent, in one of the first signs of unrest since authorities lifted a lockdown at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.
Sitting down about one metre apart, the shop owners on Friday sat or kneeled outside the Grand Ocean Department Store, wearing masks and holding placards as police monitored.
A day earlier they chanted “Exempt rental for a year, or refund the lease” in videos uploaded on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo that were quickly censored.
“Can’t survive” said a sign held by one woman who rented a stall at Grand Ocean, which also called on the landlord to return the rent and security deposit during the period of the lockdown.
The woman said the property developer in charge of the mall, which translates to World City, should exempt rent for them because 99% of protesters are small shop owners and they haven’t had any business since the virus outbreak.
Most neighbourhoods in the city are still facing string restrictions on movement and there’s little business traffic.
Another protester said the government didn’t respond after their protest yesterday, and said the police had assaulted people on Wednesday. None of the protesters Bloomberg spoke with revealed their names due to concern of retribution.
A woman who answered the phone at World City said they haven’t restarted work and couldn’t answer questions. A call to Grand Ocean’s general office was not answered.
Wuhan officially emerged on Wednesday from a mass quarantine put in place on 23 January.
The strict restrictions helped China stem the outbreak of the deadly disease known as covid-19, but it also led to a deep slump in investment and consumption that pushed the economy into its most dire situation in decades.
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First Published:11 Apr 2020, 01:10 AM IST
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