Xi Jinping set to unleash ‘brutal military repression’ to stop lockdown protests in China

Xi Jinping has been tipped to unleash "brutal military repression" on protestors amid a crackdown on anti-lockdown demonstrations.

By Tim McNulty, News Reporter

China: Expert discusses Xi Jinping's internal policing

Australian MP Michael Danby has blasted the hard internal policing being used across to tackle dissent over measures. Xi Jinping's regime is under pressure after massive protest erupts over Beijing's "zero-Covid" rules. 

Mr Danby told Sky News Australia the protests in China will end in "brutal military repression."

He said: "The Chinese communists spend more on internal policing, even than they do on their very aggressive international military expenditure.

"Ten people at least were burned to death in their houses ... because of this Covid repression.

"It’s in every city in China, that’s the amazing thing."

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Former Labor MP Michael Danby says the Chinese protests will end in “brutal military repression”.

Former Labor MP Michael Danby says the Chinese protests will end in “brutal military repression”. (Image: Sky News Australia)

Xi Jinping power threatened amid protests

Xi Jinping's power threatened amid protests (Image: GETTY)

Defence Intelligence Analyst Paul Monk has suggested current anti-lockdown backlash in China could be a “serious turning point” for  Xi Jinping's regime. 

The protests are believed to have been triggered after a number of people lost their lives in an apartment building fire in Urumqi after emergency services were reportedly delayed by lockdown rules.

Mr Monk told Sky News Australia: "It seems to me various authoritarian regimes crack at different, often unpredictable points due to things that they didn’t foresee.

"This could be a very serious turning point for China."

 

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Footage from the frontline of protests in the city of Guangzhou showed riot police in hazmat suits dragging people out of the demonstration.

Missiles and bottles were hurled at the police by the angry protestors.

Hundreds of SUVs, vans and armoured vehicles with flashing lights were parked along city streets Wednesday while police and paramilitary forces conducted random ID checks and searched people’s mobile phones for photos, banned apps or other potential evidence that they had taken part in the demonstrations.

The number of people who have been detained at the demonstrations and in follow-up police actions is not known.

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Xi Jinping: Profile of China's leader

Xi Jinping: Profile of China's leader (Image: EXPRESS)

Political commentator Quentin Letts believes that Xi Jinping has backed himself into a corner of China's "zero Covid" policy. 

Mr Letts told Good Morning Britain: "There's a very good piece in The Telegraph today, by Sherelle Jacobs saying that this zero-tolerance Covid approach by China has become China's version of the Ukraine war.

They're not going to win this thing and President Xi has got himself into a terrible corner and it's very difficult to see how his authority is improved. 

He added: "But the ultimate sort of political reality of this political physics is that freedom will out and the Chinese authorities are fighting a losing battle."

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