Sharjah24 - Reuters: Protests in China against the world's toughest COVID-19 restrictions are dying down because they have had an effect, a top U.S. diplomat said on Friday, as Beijing further eased testing and quarantine rules.
Anger over the curbs had fueled dozens of protests in more than 20 cities in recent days in a show of civil disobedience unprecedented in mainland China since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.
While the easing of some measures appears to be an attempt to appease the public, Chinese authorities have also begun to seek out those who have been at the protests.
"I think we have seen the protests die down now in China, and the reason they've died down is they actually had an effect," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said at an American University event in Washington.
"They are allowing people to quarantine in their homes as opposed to quarantine in fever hospitals. They say they are going to open step by step in this," Sherman said of Beijing's response.
"Protests do matter," she said, adding that she recognized China had used security forces to quash the demonstrations and put protesters in jail.
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