The zero Covid-19 policy is causing a wave of social reactions, which continues to be implemented by the leadership of China, resulting in entire districts of major cities and Beijing being placed in quarantine again, with record numbers of new cases of coronavirus being recorded daily for the past week.
According to Chinese health authorities, 27,000 cases had been recorded last Monday, and the day before yesterday, Saturday, cases exceeded 39,000, a number higher than the cases last April, which led to lockdowns in many major cities across the country. Yesterday they reached 39,791. One death due to complications was reported in the last 24 hours, with the total number of victims of the pandemic amounting to 5,233 out of a total of 307,802 cases with symptoms of the disease.
The severity of the measures caused large demonstrations yesterday, mainly by students, which even took on a political character. According to a CNN report, slogans against the CCP and Xi Jinping were heard. Characteristic of the mood of many of these marches and rallies is the comparison made by many international media to the wave of protests that led to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, noting that this is the first time since then that such massive demonstrations have been observed.
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A deadly apartment building fire in the western district of Xinjiang, where at least 10 people died and as many others were seriously injured, was the flashpoint of a wave of reaction. Citizen videos posted on social media show that authorities' lockdown checks in that area delayed firefighters from reaching the burning apartment building. Protests erupted in cities and universities across China on Saturday and continued Sunday in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou (formerly Canton), squares and university campuses.
Shanghai's 25 million residents were under lockdown for two months (April-May) an ordeal that sparked angry protests. Since then, Chinese authorities have tried to make the restrictions more targeted, but the margins have narrowed after the recent spike in outbreaks.
In Shanghai, a candle-lit rally was held Saturday night in the central square in memory of the victims of the Xinjiang fire. The crowd then held out white sheets of white paper (a symbolic protest against censorship) and chanted slogans for respect for human rights and democracy. A rally was also held yesterday. Some videos show people singing China's national anthem while holding banners and placards protesting the extremely strict pandemic measures. Xinjiang, where the deadly fire occurred the day before yesterday, is counting 100 days of quarantine measures.
In Jiangsu province, students from Nanjing University gathered to mourn those who died in the Xinjiang fire. In a video, a university administrator can be heard warning the students that "they will pay for what they do" and those gathered responded to him in exactly the same phrase.
Earlier this month, China announced that it was relaxing some of the provisions of its zero Covid policy, such as suspending flights for airlines that had carried passengers who tested positive. It also reduced the time required to quarantine passengers on international flights from seven to five days. The relaxation of some measures was necessary to draw new conclusions and for the measures to be "targeted and effective," Lei Haichao, deputy director of the National Health Commission, told local media.
Major cities including the capital are still maintaining most of the tried-and-tested measures, albeit in a more focused way, to avoid a general lockdown, as had been the case during the pandemic outbreak. Guangdong province, where Guangzhou is located, reported the largest number of new cases last week (Monday with 9,085 out of a total of 27,095 cases nationwide) and most of it is under containment.
According to China's state-run Xinhua news agency, local governments across China are implementing policies to support businesses and residents amid ongoing control of Covid-19, allowing supermarkets affected by the virus to reopen earlier and reducing operating costs for struggling companies. Local authorities in Beijing have vowed to speed up the reopening of shopping malls and supermarkets to ensure normal city and market operations.
A representative for the mayor of Beijing said that these stores, if affected by the Covid-19 outbreaks, will be allowed to reopen after one day of closure and decontamination and in any case will not be closed for more than three days thereafter. In response to public concerns, the Beijing government will increase support for residents who have to leave their closed homes to seek medical services, Xu said. Municipal officials also said they had ordered major e-commerce companies to stock up on three to five times more products to stabilize prices.
On Friday, Beijing reported 586 confirmed cases and 2,009 asymptomatic cases. The latest outbreak has forced the closure of many restaurants and shopping outlets and residents have been ordered to reduce their outings.
In southwest China's Chongqing municipality, which has recorded more than 60,000 infections since Nov. 1, authorities organized retailers for outside housing complexes that were quarantined and tightly guarded. The government is also negotiating with e-commerce platforms to increase supplies while helping retailers resume business online after closing their stores, said Zhang Yongwu, head of the municipal commerce commission.
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The Department of Commerce has committed to greater efforts to ensure the supply of daily essentials, especially for residents in areas hard hit by the Covid-19 resurgence. Ministry spokesman Shu Jueting said that "the ministry will continue to monitor the prices of staple items on a daily basis, arrange meat stock release and improve inter-regional coordination to secure supplies." The supply of daily market staples across the country is generally adequate, he assured, and wholesale prices of pork, eggs and vegetables have fallen since the beginning of the month, Shu added.
The Chinese president suggests that a Western finger is behind the riots. He claims that he has known this would happen since last September.
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