Detentions as China seeks to end widespread Covid protests

Many young women are at the forefront of the Covid protests across China and are showing up as prominent voices in footage emerging on social media.

In one of the viral videos, a female student at the prestigious Tsinghua University - also the alma mater of Chinese leader Xi Jinping - led the crowds in chanting they would no longer kneel before "public power”.

There is a lot of grievance and anger among young Chinese women, Feng Yuan, co-founder of Beijing-based NGO Equality, told the BBC.

“From the chained mother of eight in Xuzhou to the assaulted women in Tangshan, women have been silenced whenever they want to speak out,” she said.

Yang, who is in her early 20s, joined the protest in Shanghai last night.

“In the past, there were leaders in the mass movements or there were plans,” she said, but the Covid protests have instead been “spontaneous”, with no organisation.