Hello and joining us down the line we have spikes Tom Slater.

And joining us down the line we have spiked columnist Rakee Bissan.

Hello. Jesus. So China is experiencing a huge wave of protests, believed to be the biggest

protest since Tiananmen Square in 1989 and it's all kicked off because of the zero COVID policy.

Almost three years of on-off lockdowns. Some of the most extreme restrictions in the world

seem to have pushed people to breaking point.

Tom you've written about these protests this week.

Do you want to say a bit about them?

I mean, first of all, it seems like the bravery of these protesters is extraordinary

given the circumstances.

No, completely, especially because the pretty fearsome regime of state surveillance

and censorship has, if anything, been bolstered over the period of the pandemic for obvious reasons.

So the courage of these people to come out onto the streets and to in many cases not simply

protesting against the lockdown restrictions. That's certainly a core part of it in the trigger

for a lot of what we're seeing now, but actually, you know, saying the unthinkable and that it's time for

she's in ping or for the CCP to set down.

Direct protests against, I say direct but kind of the white paper blank sheets of paper

protests against a censorship. So what you're really seeing is this morphing into a pretty significant

challenge in a front to the ruling regime.

It's been building up for a good few weeks now.

I don't know from people who remember during the Chinese Communist Party's Congress,

there was the bridge man who unveiled these banners over a bridge in Beijing, not only rehearsing

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