Woman Knocked Out Cold at Columbia Protest Over China’s ‘Zero-COVID’ Lockdown

A protester was knocked unconscious, wacked multiple times in the head, by an unknown assailant at a demonstration Monday evening at Columbia University where hundreds gathered calling for an end to China’s “zero-COVID” lockdown policies.

Police in New York City said a 21-year-old woman attending the rally was approached just before 8 p.m. outside the Low Memorial Library and beaten until she lost consciousness.

A surveillance image of the suspected attacker was obtained by authorities and released to the public on Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear what led up to the attack.

The following day, about 400 people gathered across the street from the consulate in New York, holding signs saying “Citizen Dignity Freedom” and “Free China.”

AP Photo/John Minchillo

Protests against the country’s ongoing COVID-19 restrictions have grown in the past week following the deaths of 10 people in a fire in northwestern China, deaths that some blamed on the strict anti-virus controls.

Chinese authorities’ restrictive “zero-COVID” strategy has led to demonstrations in at least eight mainland cities and Hong Kong. They have been called the most widespread protests since the 1989 student-led Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement.

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Wuhan, China as protests over China’s stringent COVID restrictions spread across the country.