Censors step in after protests against Communist leadership in Beijing

A scorched pavement is seen on the side of a highway overpass near the site where social media videos appeared to show smoke and protest banners in Beijing (Ng Han Guan/AP)

China’s internet censors have deleted social media posts after reports that banners criticising the Communist leadership were hung from a busy intersection in the capital Beijing.

Images on Twitter, which is blocked in China, showed smoke spiralling up from a fire on an elevated roadway and banners calling for an end to the hard-line “zero-Covid” policy and the overthrow of Communist Party leader and President Xi Jinping.