Asian shares fall as China protests, lockdowns cloud outlook

BANGKOK — Shares skidded in Asia on Monday, with Hong Kong briefly dipping more than 4% following weekend protests in various cities over China’s strict zero-COVID lockdowns.

U.S. futures were lower after a mixed, shortened session Friday on Wall Street. Oil prices fell more than $2 a barrel.

The unrest in China is the boldest show of public dissent against the ruling Communist Party in years. It followed complaints that policies aimed at eradicating the coronavirus by isolating every case might have worsened the death toll in an apartment fire in Urumqi in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

China’s infection rate has been lower than in the United States and other countries, but the authorities are facing rising resentment over the economic and human costs of the approach known as “zero-COVID” as businesses close and families are isolated for weeks with …