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b'An apartment fire in Urumqi, China, left at least 10 dead and injured at least nine others on Nov. 24, sparking nationwide and global protests against the Chinese Communist Party\\u2019s \\u201czero-COVID\\u201d policy.\\xa0\\n\\u201cIt was really sparked by the fire in Urumqi. So, China has sort of a practice in its \\u2018zero-COVID\\u2019 policy of when it locks down cities or buildings,\\u201d said Michael Cunningham, a research fellow in The Heritage Foundation\\u2019s Asian Studies Center. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)\\n\\u201cLots of times it\\u2019ll erect barricades or sometimes even lock or weld people inside. And so, we\\u2019re not sure if any of that happened, but there\\u2019s a public perception that that was probably the case, and that that\\u2019s one of the reasons why so many people died in that fire,\\u201d he said.\\nCunningham also discussed what the\\xa0protesters\\xa0are risking by speaking out against the communist regime.\\xa0\\n\\u201cWell, the protestors are risking everything. The [Chinese Communist Party] is an extremely powerful and an extremely brutal regime. It does not accept any dissent. So, I have to say, protests are not unheard of in China. They\\u2019re actually quite common, but they\\u2019re usually against local officials,\\u201d he explained.\\n\\u201cAnd so the stakes there aren\\u2019t nearly as high as when you\\u2019re literally standing up as some protesters have and said the [Chinese Communist Party] and [President] Xi Jinping have to go. Or when they\\u2019re standing up and saying, \\u2018No more totalitarianism. We want democracy,\\u2019 which is what we heard in some of the protests, as well, over the weekend,\\u201d Cunningham added.\\xa0\\nCunningham joins \\u201cThe Daily Signal Podcast\\u201d to discuss the ongoing civil unrest throughout China and protests around the world, the likelihood that Xi could be ousted, and the Vatican\\u2019s criticism of the Chinese Communist Party.\\n Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.'