Chinese police search people's phones after anti-lockdown protests erupt across country Sympathy protests held in several world cities amid protests unprecedented since Xi Jinping took power COVID-19 lockdown protesters in China call for president to resign What you need to know: - Protests erupted after a fire killed at least 10 in the city of Urumqi, where some people have been locked in their homes for four months.Police on Monday stopped and searched people at the sites of weekend protests in Shanghai and Beijing, after crowds there and in other Chinese cities demonstrated against stringent COVID-19 measures disrupting lives three years into the pandemic.Police checking phones for VPNs Police have been asking people for their phones to check if they have virtual private networks (VPNs) and the Telegram app, which has been used by weekend protesters, according to residents and social media users.Asked about widespread anger over China's zero-COVID policy, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters: "What you mentioned does not reflect what actually happened.The zero-COVID policy has kept China's official death toll in the thousands, against more than a million in the United States, but has come at the cost of confining many millions to long spells at home, bringing extensive disruption and damage to the world's second-largest economy."