Protesters in China are calling for an end to pandemic restrictions and lockdowns, with citizens rallying against the nation's COVID-zero policy.
The show of civil disobedience among Chinese citizens, which appears to be gaining momentum, is being labelled as "extraordinary".
What prompted the protests?
The most recent trigger was the death of 10 people in an apartment building fire in Urumqi, in the north-west region of Xinjiang, on Thursday night.
Video circulating on social media showed firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze from a distance.
It was unclear why they were so far away, but some said fire engines were blocked by pandemic-control barriers or by cars stranded after their owners were put in quarantine.
Some social media users suggested residents could not escape the building because it was partially locked down — something city officials denied.
But anger over China's COVID-19 policies has been building throughout the pandemic.
What are the COVID rules in China?
Nearly three years since the pandemic began, China is still trying to stop transmission of the disease with a COVID-zero strategy.
The specific rules in place depend on the location, but they include travel restrictions and rolling lockdowns, with people in home quarantine in some areas saying they lack food and medicine.
In Urumqi, for example, some people have been locked in their homes for four months.
China also still uses COVID-19 tracking apps, which fell out of use in Australia as the country moved to the "living with the virus" stage of the pandemic.
The apps track people's movements and show if they've been to a COVID hotspot or have tested positive, displaying their status as either green, yellow or red.
People need to display a green status to get into nearly every public place in urban China, including restaurants, public transport, supermarkets and parks.
And they need to take PCR tests regularly to maintain their green status — for some people that is every one or two days.
The Chinese government announced a slight relaxation of COVID-control measures this month but said it would still stick to its COVID-zero policy.
However, local officials have been locking residents down as cases have shot up.
How many cases are being reported in China?
China recorded a fifth-straight daily record of 40,347 new infections on Sunday.
That was after recording 39,791 new cases a day earlier.
Most of them are asymptomatic cases, according to China's statistics.
Last week, China recorded its first COVID-related death since May.
How have the protests been unfolding?
Many have started out as vigils for the victims of the fire and turned into anti-lockdown demonstrations.
People gathered in Urumqi after the blaze on Friday.
Footage shared on social media showed crowds chanting "end the lockdown!" and pumping their fists in the air as they marched.
Then on Saturday, Reuters reported there were demonstrations in Beijing, with some residents under lockdown staging small-scale protests.
On Saturday night, what began as a vigil in Shanghai for the victims of the Urumqi building fire escalated into violence and stretched into the early hours of Sunday.
Reuters reported a large group chanted: "Down with the Chinese Communist Party, down with [President] Xi Jinping, free Urumqi." Clashes also broke out between police and demonstrators.
The BBC reported Chinese police assaulted and detained one of its journalists, Ed Lawrence, who was covering the demonstration in Shanghai.
By Sunday, there were reports of protests in several other cities, including Wuhan and Chengdu, and demonstrations at numerous universities.
The Associated Press reported a group of about 200 people gathered in a Beijing park, holding up blank pieces of paper as a symbol of defiance against the ruling communist party's censorship.
Reuters reports people are also using the blank sheets of paper in social media posts to protest while evading censorship and arrest.
In the early hours of Monday in Beijing, Reuters said two groups of at least 1,000 protesters gathered in Beijing and refused to leave.
"We don't want masks, we want freedom. We don't want COVID tests, we want freedom," they chanted.
What's the significance of these protests?
Sophie Richardson, the China director of Human Rights Watch, said: "These are probably the largest protests, both in terms of the numbers of people and the geographic diversity, since the 1989 the Tiananmen Square protests."
Dr Richardson said some protesters were demonstrating in broad daylight without masks, which she said was "extraordinary".
"People are clearly willing to take risks of reprisals in incredibly courageous ways that demand the world's sympathy and support," she said.
ABC with Wires
