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A heavy police presence remains in place in Shanghai and Beijing today to prevent further rallies following the weekend's historic demonstrations against anti-covid restrictions and demanding more political freedoms. 

China's communist authorities have faced the largest protest movement since the pro-democracy riots in 1989, notes AFP. 

The events unfold amid widespread public discontent after nearly three years of a strict zero-covid policy with repeated lockdowns and near-daily urinal testing of the population, as well as deep disillusionment with China's political system.

A key moment was a deadly fire last week in Urumqi, the capital of the northwestern Xinjiang autonomous region.

There have been accusations that sanitary restrictions have prevented rescuers from working.

The government yesterday rejected those claims.

After the tense weekend, demonstrations were planned for last night in many Chinese cities, but they did not take place.

AFP journalists noted a massive police presence in Beijing and Shanghai.

Demonstrators said police questioned them about whether they had attended the rallies of the previous days. 

In Shanghai, not far from where crowds demanded the resignation of President Xi Jinping on Sunday, staff at neighborhood bars told AFP they had been ordered to close at 10pm for "epidemic control".

Groups of agents are stationed at all subway exits. 

In Shanghai they demanded the resignation of Xi Jinping

Yesterday, AFP reporters saw four people being arrested, one of whom was later released.

A journalist counted 12 police cars parked in a hundred-meter stretch of Urumqi Street, the center of Shanghai's demonstrations on Sunday.

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