1News digital producer Aziz Al Sa'afin explains the recent unrest, where it started and how it led to an unlikely backdown by the Chinese government.
Tensions in China have been boiling over, with people taking to the streets protesting the country's zero-Covid policy measures and calling for President Xi Jinping to step down.
After initially choosing to censor rather than address the recent unrest, Chinese officials finally signalled a partial backdown.
But that did not come without a fight from its people.
Where it started
The most recent unrest in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang.
An apartment fire killed 10 people and injured nine others in late November.
From video that emerged, there was speculation Covid restrictions meant victims were bolted inside and could not be rescued.
The protocols that were meant to be saving lives stopped emergency services from doing just that.
How tough are China's lockdowns?
China's lockdowns are strict.
The military is engaged, with residents effectively on house arrest.
There is limited access to healthcare, food and medicine.
It has exhausted delivery services and that has created frustration across the country.
How Chinese officials responded to the unrest
Up until recently, officials chose to ignore the unrest.
The government doubled down with censoring.
It blocked footage of maskless fans at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
It also removed the ability to search keywords like 'protest' within China and arrested journalists, like the BBC's Ed Lawrence, for covering demonstrations.
Their response only led to more rage and triggered further protests across the country.
How China's people fought back against the government
Protesters continued to show up and chant for human rights, singing The Internationale, a socialist anthem also sung during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
They also started to hold up blank sheets of white paper calling out their government's censorship.
It has quickly become a symbol of tacit defiance against a country with little tolerance for institutional democracy and a free press.
And it has finally forced officials to signal an ease to their zero-Covid policy, for now.
The result
China is the last major country still trying to stamp out the transmission of the virus while many nations switch to trying to live with it. (Source: Breakfast)
China rolled back rules on isolating people with Covid-19 and dropped virus test requirements for some public places today in a dramatic change to a strategy that confined millions of people to their homes and sparked protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to resign.
People with mild cases will be allowed for the first time to isolate at home, the National Health Commission announced, instead of going to sometimes overcrowded or unsanitary quarantine centres.
Public facilities, except for "special places," such as schools, hospitals and nursing homes, will no longer require visitors to produce a “health code” on a smartphone app that tracks their virus tests and whether they have been to areas deemed at high risk of infection.
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