new delhi detentions as china seeks to end widespread covid protests screamed the bbc headlinecnn carried the news as its lead story with the title rare protests spread across chinachina tightens security after rare protests against covid curbs was the headline on reuters frontpagethe world media is closely watching the unprecedented antilockdown protests rocking china where people have hit the streets in a rare show of dissent against the government and the chinese communist party ccp in urumqi shanghai beijing and elsewhere people have come out in large numbers demanding an end to the lockdown slogans were also raised against the countrys powerful president xi jinping calling for his resignationbut the local chinese media has maintained a complete blackout on news related to the proteststhe ccpbacked global times at 730pm ist had taiwan local elections and chinas space mission among its top stories apart from some others belittling the west on a multitude of issuesthe only covidrelated story on the frontpage spoke of measures put in place in china and had an experts opinion on what might be the best steps to take here onsee for yourself what result the site returned for the search words beijing protest the china daily another ccp mouthpiece was no differentit did have a couple of covid stories on top though headlined expert home quarantine not workable yet and pandemic not completely over fauci saysbut protests and antixi chants nonethat is not unexpected though given chinas dismal track record visavis freedom of press news and information specially if it portrays the ccp and the government in a bad light are ruthlessly censored journalists seen as behind such news are subjected to punitive actions even foreign media persons are not sparedthe bbc said one of its journalist was beaten and briefly arrested in shanghai while covering the current wave of protestschinas global image is taking another beating as the protests have now spread to at least a dozen cities around the world in a show of solidarity with rare displays of defiance in china over the weekendexpatriate dissidents and students staged smallscale vigils and protests in cities in europe asia and north america including london paris tokyo and sydney according to a reuters tallychinese internet users and government censors are engaged in a catandmouse game to control the narrative around the countrys anti zero covid protests the ani reported quoting another sourcevideos and photographs of the protests quickly circulated on chinese social media platforms such as wechat and weibo where they received tens of thousands of views before being deleted by government censors it saidthe acts of defiance shared online included scenes of people tearing down barricades calling for the resignation of president xi jinping and holding up blank white pieces of paper as a symbol of protestby monday chinese social media appeared to have scrubbed searches for protest hotspots like xinjiang and beijingthe battle is on in cyberspace and on the groundlarge crowds gathered sunday in beijing and shanghai where police clashed with protesters