US backs right to peaceful protests in China over Covid restrictions

The United States backs the right of people to peacefully protest in China, the White House said on Monday, but stopped short of criticizing Beijing as protesters in multiple Chinese cities have demonstrated against heavy Covid-19 measures. Chinese police on Monday tightened security at the sites of weekend protests in Shanghai and Beijing, after crowds there and in other Chinese cities and on dozens of university campuses made a show of civil disobedience unprecedented since leader Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.