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Protesters seek Xi’s resignation

State censors appeared to have scrubbed Chinese social media of any news about the rallies, with the search terms “Liangma River”, “Urumqi Road”…reports Asian Lite News

China’s censors were working Monday to extinguish signs of rare, social media-driven protests that flared across major cities over the weekend calling for political freedoms and an end to Covid lockdowns.

Sunday saw people take to the streets in several major cities across China to call for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedoms, in a wave of nationwide protests not seen since pro-democracy rallies in 1989 were crushed.

A deadly fire last week in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang region, has become a catalyst for public anger, with many blaming Covid lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts.

But they have also featured prominent calls for greater political freedoms — with some even demanding the resignation of China’s President Xi Jinping, recently re-appointed to an unprecedented third term as the country’s leader.

Large crowds gathered Sunday in the capital Beijing and Shanghai, where police clashed with protesters as they tried to stop groups from converging at Wulumuqi street, named after the Mandarin for Urumqi.

Crowds that had gathered overnight — some of whom chanted “Xi Jinping, step down! CCP, step down!” — were dispersed by Sunday morning.

But in the afternoon, hundreds rallied in the same area with blank sheets of paper and flowers to hold what appeared to be a silent protest, an eyewitness said.

In the capital, at least 400 people gathered on the banks of a river for several hours, with some shouting: “We are all Xinjiang people! Go Chinese people!”

Reporters at the scene described the crowd singing the national anthem and listening to speeches, while on the other side of the canal bank, a line of police cars waited.

State censors appeared to have scrubbed Chinese social media of any news about the rallies, with the search terms “Liangma River”, “Urumqi Road” — sites of protests in Beijing and Shanghai — scrubbed of any references to the rallies on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

Videos including those showing university students singing in protest and rallies in other cities had also vanished from WeChat, replaced by notices saying the content was reported for “non-compliant or sensitive content.”

The Weibo search for the hashtag #A4 — a reference to the blank pieces of paper held up at rallies in a symbolic protest against censorship — also appeared to have been manipulated, showing only a handful of posts from the past day.

Boiling point

China’s strict control of information and continued travel curbs tied to the zero-Covid policy make verifying numbers of protestors across the vast country challenging.

But such widespread rallies are exceptionally rare, with authorities harshly clamping down on any and all opposition to the central government.

Protests also occurred on Sunday in Wuhan, the central city where Covid-19 first emerged, while there were reports of demonstrations in Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hong Kong.

Spreading through social media, they have been fuelled by frustration at the central government’s zero-Covid policy, which sees authorities impose snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing campaigns over just a handful of cases.

State-run newspaper the People’s Daily published a commentary Monday morning warning against “paralysis” and “battle-weariness” in the fight against Covid — but stopped far short of calling for an end to hardline policy.

“People have now reached a boiling point because there has been no clear direction to path to end the zero-Covid policy,” Alfred Wu Muluan, a Chinese politics expert at the National University of Singapore, said.

“The party has underestimated the people’s anger.”

Investors were spooked by the weekend protests, with Asian stocks opening sharply lower on Monday morning.

China reported 40,052 domestic Covid-19 cases Monday, a record high but tiny compared to caseloads in the West at the height of the pandemic.

Clashes in Shanghai

Hundreds of demonstrators and police have clashed in Shanghai as protests over Chinas stringent Covid restrictions continued for a third day and spread to several cities, in the biggest test for President Xi Jinping since he secured a historic third term in power.

The wave of civil disobedience is unprecedented in mainland China in the past decade, as frustration mounts over Xi’s signature zero-Covid policy nearly three years into the pandemic, the Guardian reported.

Protests triggered by a deadly apartment fire in the far west of the country last week took place on Sunday in cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Guangzhou.

On Monday, China reported a new daily record of new Covid-19 infections, with 40,347 cases.

ALSO READ-‘Economy ceased to be priority area of Xi Jinping’

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2 more UK ministers resign in fresh blow to Boris

The resignations have added to the pressure on the Prime Minister following the departure of his health and finance ministers…reports Asian Lite News

In a fresh blow to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who recently survived a leadership challenge, three more have resigned from his government on Wednesday, media reports said.

Education ministers Will Quince and Robin Walker and ministerial aide Laura Trott on Wednesday, BBC reported.

Will Quince said he had “no choice but to tender my resignation” while Laura Trott said she was quitting over a loss of “trust” in the government.

The resignations have added to the pressure on the Prime Minister following the departure of his health and finance ministers.

Two of Boris Johnson’s top ministers — Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid — quit the government on Tuesday.

“I have spoken to the Prime Minister to tender my resignation as Secretary of State for Health & Social Care. It has been an enormous privilege to serve in this role, but I regret that I can no longer continue in good conscience,” Javid had said in a tweet.

Javid said he can no longer serve in Boris Johnson’s government in “good conscience” as he has “lost confidence” in the Prime Minister.

Setting out his decision to quit in a letter, he wrote: “I am instinctively a team player but the British people also rightly expect integrity from their Government. The tone you set as a leader, and the values you represent, reflect on your colleagues, your party and ultimately the country. Conservatives at their best are seen as hard-headed decision makers, guided by strong values. We may not have always been popular, but we have been competent in acting in the national interest.

“Sadly, in the current circumstances, the public are concluding that we are now neither. The vote of confidence last month showed that a large number of our colleagues agree. It was a moment for humility, grip and a new direction. I regret to say, however, that it is clear to me that this situation will not change under your leadership – and you have therefore lost my confidence too.”

Soon after, Sunak also put in his paper, saying “we’re fundamentally too different”.

In his letter, he said “the public rightly expect the government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously. I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.”

Noting that “our country is facing immense challenges”, he said: “I publicly believe the public are ready to hear that truth. Our people know that if something is too good to be true then it’s not true. They need to know that whilst there is a path to a better future, it is not an easy one.

“In preparation for our proposed joint speech on the economy next week, it has become clear to me that our approaches are fundamentally too different.”

“I am sad to be leaving government but I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that we cannot continue like this,” he added.

ALSO READ-Game Over For Rishi At Westminster

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UK govt in crisis as PM’s four top aides quit

Lawmakers in Conservative Party are mulling whether to seek a no-confidence vote in the leader who won them a big parliamentary majority just over two years ago, reports Asian Lite News

Four of Boris Johnson’s most senior staff quit on Thursday, triggering new turmoil for the embattled British prime minister.

Johnson’s office said chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and principal private secretary Martin Reynolds had both tendered their resignations. Director of Communications Jack Doyle and senior adviser Munira Mirza also said they had left Downing Street.

Reynolds is a key figure in the partygate scandal over lockdown-breaching parties held by Johnson and his staff during the coronavirus pandemic. He sent an invitation to about 100 staff to a bring your own booze garden party in May 2020, when Britons were banned from socializing in groups as part of restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The garden gathering is one of 16 alleged parties under investigation by senior civil servant Sue Gray. A dozen of the events are also being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.

This week Gray released an interim report looking at the four parties police are not investigating. She found that failures of leadership and judgment allowed events to occur that should not have been allowed to take place and described a Downing Street operation marked by excessive drinking and dysfunctional dynamics.

Johnson has apologized and pledged to fix the problems in his office, but has not admitted personal wrongdoing.

The prime minister’s grip on power has been shaken by revelations that his staff held bring your own booze office parties, birthday celebrations and wine time Fridays in 2020 and 2021 while millions in Britain were barred from meeting with friends and family.

Lawmakers in Johnson’s Conservative Party are mulling whether to seek a no-confidence vote in the leader who won them a big parliamentary majority just over two years ago. Under party rules, such a vote is triggered if 15 per cent of party lawmakers currently 54 people write letters calling for one. If Johnson lost such a vote he would be replaced as party leader and prime minister.

It’s not known how many letters have been sent, though a handful of lawmakers said this week that they were seeking a no-confidence vote. Conservative discontent grew after Johnson accused opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer in the House of Commons on Monday of failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was the UK’s director of public prosecutions. Savile was a veteran television personality who was revealed after his death in 2011 as one of Britain’s worst serial sexual abusers.

Starmer said it was a ridiculous slur peddled by right-wing trolls, and some Conservatives also recoiled at the attack. Mirza, who has worked for Johnson since he was mayor of London a decade ago, resigned over the Savile comment.

“You are a better man than many of your detractors will ever understand, which is why it is so desperately sad that you let yourself down by making a scurrilous accusation against the leader of the opposition,” she wrote in a resignation letter, published by the Spectator magazine of which Johnson is a former editor.

As Johnson’s troubles mounted Thursday, a government minister, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke, was asked by Channel 4 news whether it felt like the last days of Rome in Downing Street.

“The last days of Rome, I think, were more fun,” he said.

ALSO READ-Revolt Against Boris Begins

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Embattled Boris says he won’t resign

The “partygate” scandal continues to spiral out ahead of an internal Cabinet Office inquiry report, which has now been delayed to an unspecified later date, reports Asian Lite News

Embattled British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said he won’t resign amidst growing pressure on him to quit after the so-called “partygate” scandal of alleged lockdown breaches at 10 Downing Street and other government offices during 2020-2021.

The scandal continues to spiral out ahead of an internal Cabinet Office inquiry report, which has now been delayed to an unspecified later date as Scotland Yard confirmed that the Metropolitan Police will investigate potential lockdown breaches related to alleged parties at Boris Johnson’s office-residence at 10 Downing Street, as well as other government offices in London.

“As a result firstly of the information provided by the Cabinet Office inquiry team and secondly by the officers own assessment, I can confirm that the Met is now investigating a number of events that took place at Downing Street and Whitehall in the last two years, Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick told the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee at the Mayor of London’s office. I should stress that we are now investigating does not mean fixed penalty notices will necessarily be issued in every instance and to every person involved. We will not be giving a running commentary on our current investigations but I can assure you we will give updates at significant points,” she said.

This criminal investigation, which could result in fines being issued on Downing Street and government officials, means that the internal Cabinet Office inquiry being led by top civil servant Sue Gray will deliver its report only after the police probe.

Paymaster General Michael Ellis told the House of Commons that there is “ongoing contact” between the Met Police and Gray, who will meanwhile continue with her separate investigation.

He said the government cannot comment on “what is an ongoing police investigation” and asked MPs “not to preempt its conclusions”.

Earlier, Downing Street said Johnson, who turned 56 on June 19, 2020, was present at an event “for less than 10 minutes” as his staff “gathered briefly” to wish him a happy birthday.

The strict lockdown rules imposed at the time to contain the spread of coronavirus banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. But ITV News’ reported on Monday night that up to 30 people attended the event, sang Happy Birthday and were served cake.

The event reportedly took place in the Cabinet Room of Downing Street just after 2pm local time that day and had been arranged as a surprise for Johnson by his then fiancee and now wife, Carrie Symonds, after he returned from an official trip to a school in Hertfordshire.

“A group of staff working in Number 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the Prime Minister a happy birthday. He was there for less than 10 minutes,” a Number 10 Downing Street spokesperson said.

The ITV report also claimed that the same evening, family friends were hosted upstairs in the Prime Minister’s official residence in apparent breach of the rules.

However, Number 10 denied that claim: “This is totally untrue. In line with the rules at the time the Prime Minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”

A number of his ministers spoke out in his defence even as the rebellion among backbench MPs continued to mount.

“It obviously was the Prime Minister’s birthday, he’d been given a cake earlier in the day, that’s the picture in the newspapers,” UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News’.

And he was clearly given a cake by staff when he got back to the office. These are staff he would have been working with and was working with all day long, and will have been many a time in the same room with them working on the response to coronavirus. They come in, give him a cake, I understand I think it lasted for 10 minutes and that was it,” he said.

The minister reiterated that it was ultimately for Gray to decide whether this was appropriate.

“I think we can be pretty clear that the Prime Minister didn’t present the cake to himself, he added.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said in a tweet: “So, when people in an office buy a cake in the middle of the afternoon for someone else they are working in the office with and stop for 10 minutes to sing happy birthday and then go back to their desks, this is now called a party?”

But Opposition Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, repeated his call for Johnson, 57, to resign in the wake of the latest revelations.

The Prime Minister is a national distraction and he’s got to go,” he said.

It comes as Johnson meets his Cabinet for a regular weekly meeting on Tuesday amid the growing threat of war in eastern Europe.

A Conservative backbench rebellion against Boris Johnson’s leadership is likely to continue intensifying.

A total of 54 Tory MPs must write letters of no confidence in Johnson as a leader to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the party’s powerful backbench 1922 Committee, to trigger a leadership contest.

Most were said to be w3aiting for the inquiry report to make up their minds, with the latest developments involving the police likely to renew their activities.

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UP minister resigns, may join SP; 3 MLAs say quitting party

Maurya, who hails from the other backward class (OBC) community, had crossed over to the BJP from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) before the 2017 assembly polls…reports Asian Lite News

In a jolt to the BJP in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, OBC leader Swami Prasad Maurya resigned from the state cabinet while three other MLAs announced they are quitting the party.

Maurya, who is expected to join the Samajwadi Party (SP), said he resigning from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet due to “gross neglect” towards Dalits, backwards, farmers, unemployed youth and small traders.

BJP Tindwari MLA Brajesh Prajapati, Tilhar MLA Roshan Lal Varma and Bilhaur MLA Bhagwati Sagar have announced they are leaving the party in support of Maurya.

There was no immediate word on the resignations being accepted.

On Twitter, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya urged the leader to reconsider his move.

“I don’t know for what reasons respected Swami Prasad Maurya has tendered his resignation. I appeal to him to sit down for a talk. Decisions taken in a hurry often prove wrong,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

The SP tweeted a photograph of Swami Prasad Maurya and Varma with party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and said in Hindi, “Welcome to the Samajwadi Party. There will be a social justice revolution. There will be a change in 2022.”

In his resignation letter addressed to Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Maurya said, “I discharged my responsibilities as the minister for labour, employment, and coordination in the council of ministers headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, despite adverse circumstances and ideology.”

“Due to the attitude of gross neglect towards Dalits, backwards, farmers, unemployed youth and small and medium-sized traders, I am resigning from the Yogi ministry of Uttar Pradesh,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Maurya, who hails from the other backward class (OBC) community, had crossed over to the BJP from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) before the 2017 assembly polls.

He is a five-time MLA from Padrauna, while his daughter Sanghmitra Maurya is a BJP MP and represents Badaun in the Lok Sabha.

In a tweet, Yadav said, “This time all the oppressed, downtrodden, neglected will unite against the BJP’s insulting and divisive politics.

“There will be a revolution of SP’s politics of giving respect to all. In 2022, with everyone meeting each other, there will be positive politics of ‘mela hobe’. There will be a historic defeat of the BJP,” he said.

The setback to the ruling party came on a day when a key BJP meeting to discuss the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, now just a month away, was taking place in Delhi.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya attended the meeting, as the party begins shortlisting its candidates.

The Uttar Pradesh polls will be held in seven phases — on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, March 3 and 7. The results will be declared on March 10 along with the four other poll-bound states of Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

Speaking to reporters here, Swami Prasad Maurya said, “I am a political person and I will be talking to some political party or the other. With whom I will talk, it will be done after consulting supporters.”

Asked when was the first time felt he felt angry with the government, he said, “As soon as I felt angry, I tendered my resignation. I was upset with anti-Dalit, anti-backwards, anti-farmers, anti-youth attitude (of the BJP government). I always spoke at the relevant forum be it the government or the party leadership. I was heard, but it led to nothing.”

Maurya’s departure from the BJP is likely to damage the party’s prospects in at least 20 seats spread across Kushinagar, Pratapgarh, Kanpur Dehat, Banda and Shahjahanpur.

BJP Tilhar MLA Varma, who had reached the Raj Bhavan here with the hard copy of Maurya’s resignation, said, “I have resigned from the BJP, and I will be with Swami Prasad Maurya. When we used to raise the grievances of the people, we were not heard.”

“We had complained to the chief minister and also to (the state BJP chief) Swatantra Dev Singh. But nothing happened. I will be joining the SP in the next couple of days,” he said while speaking to PTI.

Varma said better than him, people know the reasons behind he leaving the BJP.

“There has been an increase in unemployment and the backward and most backward classes people have been ignored. We flagged their issues, but no one heard us. Only a handful of officials run this government. Cabinet Minister Suresh Khanna in Shahjahanpur had put hurdles in various works including development,” he said.

This time, the SP is going to form a majority government in Uttar Pradesh, works of public interest will be done and respect will be given to everyone, Varma asserted.

Speaking to reporters at Maurya’s residence, Sagar said he is with Swami Prasad Maurya.

“We will decide our future course of action and go where ever our interest is redressed and we get justice,” he said.

When asked why he has taken the decision now when the assembly polls have been declared, Sagar said, “We were struggling for the past over four years. It is not the matter of getting party tickets for contesting polls, the decision is taken in the interest of our community.”

BJP MLA from Tindwari, Prajapati, has sent a letter regarding his leaving the party to the state party president.

Meanwhile, another Uttar Pradesh Minister Dharam Singh Saini denied quitting the cabinet and the BJP.

“Swami Prasad Maurya ji remains an elder brother to me. I am hearing on TV channels that he has given my name among those joining the SP with him. There is no talk with him on this…I deny quitting the cabinet and the BJP,” Saini, who is minister of state (independent charge) for Ayush, Food Security and Drug Administration, said in a video message.

ALSO READ-BJP to contest on 80 seats in Punjab

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UK PM’s race adviser steps down

Samuel Kasumu, UK PM’s Johnson’s special adviser for civil society and communities, had announced his resignation amid row over race report…reports Asian Lite News

A senior adviser to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will resign amid an intense debate over Downing Street’s controversial report on racial disparities, local media reported.

Samuel Kasumu, Johnson’s special adviser for civil society and communities, will leave his role in May and had informed colleagues of his decision on Wednesday, sources confirmed to British media on Thursday.

News of his departure emerged the day after the government released a report which concluded that there was no evidence of institutional racism in Britain.

“The report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities faced heavy criticism, with claims that it is culturally deaf, out of step with public opinion, and steeped in denial,” the Evening Standard newspaper reported.

Kasumu is expected to stay in post until May to continue work on improving vaccine uptake in minority groups, said the London-based newspaper.

Boris Johnson

But a Downing Street spokesperson said Kasumu’s departure had been planning “for several months” and was not linked to the report by the government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.

“Any suggestion that this decision has been made this week or that this is linked to the (commission’s) report is completely inaccurate,” the spokesperson added.

Also read:UK mulls Covid vax certification

Kasumu, who has not commented on the race report yet, has reportedly been unhappy with the government’s stance on racial issues.

He had previously handed in a resignation letter in February, accusing the Conservatives of a “politics steeped in division”.

The government’s race report, issued Wednesday, said that social class and family structure, rather than race, had a bigger impact on how people’s lives turned out.

It claimed the UK acts as “a model” for other white-majority countries when it comes to racial equality in education and the workplace.

The study was set up after Black Lives Matter protests last year.

A section of the report that claimed there was a new story to be told about the “slave period”, which was not just about “profit and suffering”, has been criticised for “glorifying” the slave trade.

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Labour’s Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary Marsha de Cordova on Thursday called the report “divisive”, adding it was “no wonder” the government was “losing the expertise from their team”.

“To have your most senior advisor on ethnic minorities quit as you publish a so-called landmark report on race in the UK is telling of how far removed the Tories are from the everyday lived experiences of Black, Asian and ethnic minority people,” she added.

Johnson said on Thursday the UK government is not going to agree with “absolutely everything” in the race report, but “it has some original and stimulating work in it that I think people need to read and to consider”.

“There are very serious issues that our society faces to do with racism that we need to address.

“We’ve got to do more to fix it, we need to understand the severity of the problem, and we’re going to be looking at all the ideas that they have put forward,” he added.

Also read:UK mulls Covid vax certification