Growing defiance of Covid curbs in China brings wave of arrests

Public security departments also announced a surge in crackdowns on Covid rule violations in March, with cities and counties publishing 80 notices on their Weibo accounts, compared with seven in January and 10 in February.

Sun Jian, a 37-year-old master’s degree student in the Chinese city of Yantai, for months staged a solo campaign against his university’s Covid-19 prevention measures, including blistering criticism on social media.