In late November 2022, a deadly apartment fire in China’s Xinjiang region touched off contentious protests throughout the country focusing primarily on China’s continued COVID-19 lockdowns. Dr. Darren Byler, Assistant Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University, joins the podcast to discuss the protest dynamics and governmental response. We discuss the intersection of ethnicity with protest, the role of technology in the protests’ spread, and the implications of this episode for the broader stability of Communist Party rule.