After China's protest weekend, COVID cases hit record

STORY: The wave of anger sweeping across cities in China over restrictive coronavirus curbs spilled over into early Monday.

What began as a vigil in Beijing on Sunday night for last week’s Urumqi fire victims gave way to a protest.

With Beijing residents holding up blank sheets of paper – a symbol of protest and a tactic to evade censorship laws.

They shouted support for those who protested and were arrested in Shanghai earlier over the weekend.

That includes a BBC journalist, who was captured on video being detained, with Shanghai residents heard demanding his release in the background.

The extraordinary scenes of protests come as China reported on Monday a fifth straight daily record of new local COVID-19 cases that passed the 40,000 mark.

As people within China protest despite strict rules against dissent, there have been a handful of sympathy demonstrations elsewhere in the world, not only in support of those in mainland China, but also against Communist Party rule.

In Japan, people were heard chanting “down with the Chinese Communist Party” in Mandarin outside Tokyo’s busy Shinjuku train station on Monday.

While a large crowd gathered outside the Chinese embassy in London late on Sunday, carrying signs demanding a change in Chinese leadership.

Meanwhile, China continues to stick with President Xi Jinping's signature zero-COVID policy, even as much of the world has lifted most restrictions.

On Monday, authorities in Shanghai put up barriers along sections of Wulumuqi Road, named after Urumqi.

It’s where residents staged protests over the weekend – sparking scenes unprecedented since Xi took power a decade ago.