The China Needs a Zero-Covid Change: Addressing the Decay of Xi Jinping at the Communist Party Congress

The guidelines represent a significant shift away from the strict policy that China has maintained for the past three years, which involved quashing outbreaks through mass testing, stringent lockdowns and border closures, say researchers. “It is a clear sign that China is moving away from zero COVID,” says Yanzhong Huang, a specialist in Chinese health policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

Fighting back tears, she shouts abuse at the workers below in a video that has recently gone viral on social media platforms and appears to represent the growing frustration of the Chinese people with the uncompromising zero-covid policy.

The woman has been under quarantine for half a year since returning from university in the summer, she shouts at the workers. They look back, unmoved.

The zero- Covid policy is now a de-facto policy of the President, because he already associated himself with the success model of fighting Covid.

That claim comes even as infections flare and a new strain circulates just days before the country’s most important political event, the Communist Party Congress beginning in Beijing on Sunday at which Xi Jinping is expected to cement his place as the country’s most powerful leader in decades.

Observers across the world will be watching the twice-a-decade meeting for signs of the party’s priorities when it comes to its zero-Covid stance, which has been blamed for exacerbating mounting problems in the economy, from stalled growth to a collapsing housing market.

“Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. Yes, to dignity and not to lie. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. One banner called for the removal of thedictator and the other called for him to be removed from office.

The site of the protest, “Sitong Bridge,” was immediately removed from search results by Weibo. Key words were restricted from search before long, like Beijing, Haidian, warrior, andbrave man.

Numerous accounts on Weibo and WeChat, the super-app essential for daily life in China, have been banned after commenting on – or alluding to – the protest.

Many people spoke out to show their support. Some shared the Chinese pop hit “Lonely Warrior” in a veiled reference to the protester, who others called a “Hero”, while others took to the social media platform to declare: “I saw it.”

The Covid crisis is coming to an end: Beijing’s response to the announcement of BF.7 infection in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia

Even in the face of public discontent, all the signs seem to suggest that the zero- Covid approach will continue, and that the country may change tack post- Congress.

More than 300 million people across dozens of cities in China had been affected by full or partial lockdowns at one point last month, according to CNN’s calculations.

On Tuesday, China’s National Health Commission reported more than 17,772 new Covid cases across the country, its highest total since April 2021, with Guangzhou, a city of 19 million, accounting for more than a quarter of those.

Anxious about the possible of unpredictable and unexplained snap lock downs, some in the city have been drinking out of straws.

That panic buying has been made worse by an announcement that Shanghai’s water authorities have taken action to ensure water quality after discovering saltwater inflows to two reservoirs at the mouth of the Yangtze River in September.

Exactly what is driving the increase in infections is not clear, though authorities are scrambling to contain the spread of the BF.7 coronavirus strain after it was first detected in China in late September in Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia.

The country has seen a rise in cases in domestic tourist destinations despite the fact that they are not allowed over China’s Golden Week holiday.

More than 240,000 university students in Inner Mongolia are currently locked down due to the recent outbreak, according to a deputy director of the regional Department of Education. The university Communist Party boss was dismissed after 39 of his students tested positive for swine flu, the result of an outbreak on campus.

22 million people in western Xinjiang have been banned from leaving the area and are required to stay if they want to go. Xinjiang recorded 403 new cases on Thursday, according to an official tally.

Beijing doesn’t seem to be willing to move from its hardline stance. The People’s Daily ran commentaries this week stating that China would not let its guard down.

It said the battle against Covid was winnable. Other countries that had reopened and eased restrictions had done so because they had no choice, it said, as they had failed to “effectively control the epidemic in a timely manner.”

Using mobile phones to control the daily life of a Shanghai man who had an STD test positive during his first term as anointed

A third term in office for China’s most powerful leader is very likely when he is anointed on Sunday, nearly three years later.

Many are watching for signs restrictions could be loosened as the Communist Party national congress in China votes on the priorities for the next five years. Change would need to come from the top, as the party has sought to extend, not curtail, its control on daily life under the leadership of the leader that tied himself to the policy.

Consumers in China have the ability to shop, dine and travel with online conveniences such as mobile phones and simple codes. Now, those technologies play a role in constraining daily life.

State control on people’s movement to an extent neverbefore seen in China can be achieved through a system based on mobile phone health codes.

basic activities like going to a grocery store, riding public transport, and entering an office building are dependent on holding up-to-date negative Covid tests and not being flagged as a close contact of a patient.

Being barricaded into a mall or office building as a precautionary measure when a person in the general vicinity is likely to test positive for an STD can be a risk, as it depends on whether or not someone in the general vicinity ends up testing positive.

“(You see) all the flaws of big data when it has control over your daily life,” said one Shanghai resident surnamed Li, who spent a recent afternoon scrambling to prove he didn’t need to quarantine after a tracking system pinned his wife to a location near to where a positive case had been detected.

Li, who’d been with his wife at the time but received no such message, said they were eventually able to reach a hotline and explain their situation, ultimately returning her health code to green.

The Effect of Covid-19 on the Chinese Population and Health System: A Memorandum from a Political Demonstration in Beijing

The People’s Daily has editorials that are similar to one that was released last week in an apparent bid to lower public expectation about the future of the Party.

A person commented on a photo of a late night bus and asked, “What makes you think that you won’t be on that late night bus someday?” which received more than 250,000 likes before it was taken down.

A rare political protest in Beijing took place last week, when a bridge along the busy Third Ring Road was decorated with banners that said “Social Controls Under the Policy”.

At the start of the Communist Party membership meeting, which is a five-yearly leadership event, Xi told the 2,300 members that they had protected the peoples health and safety to the greatest extent.

But for the citizens back home who are trapped in lockdown, recurring issues like accessing prompt medical care or enough food and supplies, or losing work and income – have over and over again led to hardship and tragedy, including numerous deaths believed to be linked to delayed access to medical care.

In the run up to the Party Congress, controls amplified – as local authorities around the country sought to tamp down on outbreaks coinciding with the major political event.

The threat posed by Covid is reduced due to the availability of antivirals and higher vaccine coverage. Taken together, I think the point has already been crossed where continuing zero-Covid could be considered a cost-effective strategy,” he said, adding that maintaining high vaccine coverage was key for a planned transition away from zero-Covid.

Fears about the impact of Covid-19 within China may also play out along generational and geographic lines, as younger people and those in more cosmopolitan urban centers may be more likely to support reopening the country and relaxing rules, residents said.

That leaves a lot of people in the dark, as experts say that there could be an increase in cases in a country where most people have not been exposed to the virus.

Concerns have been raised by low vaccination rates among the elderly of China, which may cause the country’s health system to overload. As of November 11, about two-thirds of people age 80 and older had received two doses, and only 40% had received a booster shot.

The Council on Foreign Relations says if you don’t see effort to prepare for the change, it means that they are not planning to change the policy any time soon.

Social and Economic Implications of the Changes in the Zero Tolerance Policy of China after a Communist Party Meeting on Friday

Already the health code system has been used to diffuse social protest – with petitioners who lost their savings in rural banks barred from protesting after their health codes inexplicably turned red.

Communist Party rule of China has been punctuated by one mass public campaign after another, each designed to commandeer Chinese minds in service of the state.

China has reduced the amount of time travelers entering the country must spend in quarantine and removed a major restriction on international flights, in a sign of a limited easing of its stringent zero-Covid policy.

The new measures were announced Friday after a Communist Party meeting in which the leaders vowed to maintain Covid protocols while emphasizing the need to minimize economic and social disruptions.

The zero tolerance approach has faced growing challenges from highly transmissible new variants, and has drawn mounting public backlash.

The easing of measures will see the “circuit breaker” mechanism that halted flights when it was found that a certain number of passengers tested positive for Covid be scrapped.

Inbound international passengers will also see their pre-departure test requirement reduced from two to one, and their mandatory centralized quarantine upon arrival cut from seven days to five days, followed by another three days of home isolation.

Markets responded positively to the changes as Covid-19 restrictions have kept international investors jittery. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shot up 7% just after the noon break local time, while mainland China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.5%.

Under the new guidelines, people who are identified as close contacts of Covid-19 cases will also have shortened quarantine at centralized government-operated facilities, down from seven days plus another three days at home, to five days and three days at home.

Furthermore, the guidelines do not lift testing and quarantine requirements for international travellers, which “doesn’t have a rationale if the objective is no longer zero COVID”, says Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong.

On the Covid lockdown, social media and the Chinese public – the case for a stronger pandemic containment measure in Guangzhou

The government reported 10, 535 new domestic transmitted cases, the most in months, and the authorities were girded for the situation to get worse.

The National Health Commission warned that the epidemic “is likely to further expand in scope and scale” due to mutations and weather factors in the winter and spring.

Residents in Guangzhou under the Covid lockdown have taken to the streets in defiance of local orders to stay at their homes, according to video and images circulating on social media.

Some of the images show large crowds cheering and surging across toppled barriers and filling streets after dark in the city’s Haizhu district, which has been under an increasingly restrictive lockdown since November 5, as the epicenter of the city’s ongoing Covid outbreak.

The clanging sound of metal barriers falling is heard across the neighborhood and mingles with cheers in the footage as multiple social media users said took place late Monday evening on district streets.

It is not clear how many people were involved in the protest, or how long it lasted. The Chinese internet’s related posts were quickly removed.

Zhang Yi, deputy director of the Guangzhou municipal health commission, told a news conference Monday that “pandemic containment measures” will be “enhanced” – a veiled reference for lockdowns – in the entirety of Liwan and Panyu districts, as well as parts of Haizhu and Yuexiu districts.

The measures should be balanced with the interests of the Chinese people, as pledged by top officials. Authorities last week revised the policy, including discouraging unnecessary mass testing and overly zealous classification of restricted “high risk” areas.

They also largely scrapped the quarantining of secondary close contacts and reduced the time close contacts must spend in central quarantine – all changes officials insist are not a relaxation but a refinement of the policy.

The hardship of the oppressive measures set by Xi in the early stage of the first Asian crisis: The Haizhu district, China

Those measures were put in place asXi prepared for a week of diplomacy attending summits in Southeast Asia in order to make sure China was ready to rejoin the world stage, with he meeting with key Western leaders this month for the first time since the Pandemic began.

Guangzhou’s Haizhu district, where images showed nighttime protests, is home to a number of migrant workers living in densely packed buildings in areas known as “urban villages.”

Their circumstances add to the hardship of the oppressive measures as it is not clear how many residents need supplies in a particular housing block. There’s also no option of remote work to preserve income for those employed in factories and on construction sites.

In messages shared on social media, observers noted hearing Haizhu residents originally from outside Guangzhou pleading for help from officials such as compensation for rent and free supplies.

There is a video circulating on social media with a man yelling that the people of Central Asia want to eat. Us Hubei people want to be unsealed!” referring to another province in China, where many migrant workers in the district come from. A crowd of people face a group of workers in hazmat suits.

In a separate clip of the same scene, another man asks the workers: “If your parents have gone sick, how would you feel? If your children are suffering from fever and prevented from leaving (for the hospital), how would you feel?”

People in another video can be heard shouting out their frustrations and desperation to a man who identifies himself as the neighborhood director and says he wants to address their concerns. One resident rushes forward and says that the meat they buy from the government has gone bad, while they can only get through to local support hotlines.

“Nobody came to explain and the community’s office line is always busy. And our landlord doesn’t care if we live or die. What should we do?” The resident is in the crowd and says that the other people are starting to shout: “Unseal! Unseal!”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/china/china-covid-guangzhou-protests-intl-hnk/index.html

CNN: China’s Zero Covid Discontent Disreopening Mic Intl-Hnk (Density in China)

In the city’s news conference Monday, an official of the Haizhu district acknowledged that restrictions could have been announced earlier and that there should have been more clarity about the measures.

There is a story in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, where you will get a three-time-a-week update about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

Hours after their home on the far outskirts of Beijing was locked down, Zhou saw his father in a video chat and last saw him on the afternoon of November 1.

The apartment building where Zhou’s family lived did not have any Covid cases, he said, even though they didn’t know the restrictions had been imposed.

“The local government killed my dad,” Zhou told CNN in his Beijing home, breaking down in tears. He claims to have no explanation about why the ambulance took so long to arrive after a death certificate stated that the wrong date of death.

On the same day Zhou lost his father, a 3-year-old boy died of gas poisoning in a locked-down compound in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, after he was blocked from being taken promptly to a hospital. Two weeks later, a 4-month-old girl died in hotel quarantine in the central city of Zhengzhou after a 12-hour delay in medical care.

Zhou contacted several Beijing-based state media outlets to report his story, but they didn’t show up. Despite knowing that the government could take action against him, he turned to foreign media. CNN is using his name to mitigate the risk.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/25/china/china-zero-covid-discontent-reopening-mic-intl-hnk/index.html

China has reopened its zero-covid campaign: workers and security officers clashed over the weekend Covid lockdown in Zhengzhou

In the central city of Zhengzhou this week, workers and security officers clashed over delayed bonus payment and chaotic Covid rules.

A resident in the southwest city of Chongqing spoke about the Covid lock down on his residential compound. I would rather die without freedom. he shouted to a cheering crowd, who hailed him a “hero” and wrestled him from the grip of several police officers who had attempted to take him away.

Fans in China, under some form of restriction, are only able to watch the World Cup at home, and these acts of defiance echoed the discontent online from them.

“None of the fans are seen wearing face masks, or told to submit proof of Covid test results. Are they the same as us? The Wechat article inquired about China’s insistence on zero-covid, which became a hit before it was removed from the internet.

There are signs that Chinese officials are feeling the heat of public discontent, which comes on top of a heavy social and economic toll.

Instead of relaxing controls, many local officials are reverting to the zero-tolerance playbook, attempting to stamp out infections as soon as they flare up.

Shijiazhuang is one of the first cities to cancel mass testing. It also allowed students to return to schools after a long period of online classes. But as cases rose over the weekend, authorities reimposed a lockdown on Monday, telling residents to stay home.

On Tuesday, financial hub Shanghai banned anyone arriving in the city from entering venues including shopping malls, restaurants, supermarkets and gyms for five days. In half of the city there are no cultural and entertainment venues anymore.

The district where the protest took place in Guangzhou was locked down for the fifth time, and Baiyun district was also locked down.

The main streets of Beijing’s largest district are mostly empty as the authorities ordered residents to stay home. Schools across several districts also moved to online classes this week.

The new policy does not have a goal which could cause confusion. Local governments may ditch all zero-COVID measures without investing serious in preparing for the transition, asHuang says, who would have wanted to have seen the reopening happen in phases.

Chinese officials have repeatedly denied that the government guidelines had anything to do with moving to live with the virus.

Zhou said that the zero- Covid policy was beneficial to the majority, but it was too restrictive at a local level.

“I don’t want things like this to happen again in China and anywhere in the world,” he said. “I lost my father. My son lost his beloved grandfather. I’m furious now.”

The impact of zero-Covid measures on a tech company in China: “It’s happening fast” and “i’m trying to make the most of it,” said Ding

Workers across China have dismantled some of the physical signs of the country’s zero-Covid controls, peeling health code scanning signs off metro station walls and closing some checkpoints after the government unveiled an overhaul of its pandemic policy.

While the changes were greeted with relief by many and sparked discussion online of freer travel within the country – and perhaps even international travel in the future – there was also a sense of uncertainty about what lay ahead.

“The world changed overnight, and that’s really incredible,” said the manager of a tech company in Beijing. I feel like we are moving in the right direction. This is important to me because if I don’t get back to a normal life, I might lose my mind.”

How can it change so quickly? Ding asked. It makes me feel like we are stupid. It’s all up to them. I feel it is good, after they said it was good. I have no choice, but to view it in this way. All I can do is follow the arrangement.”

David Wang said that although the changes were welcome, they had also triggered a sense of disbelief in the city, which was still recovering from a two-month-long, citywide lockup earlier this year.

He said that he was happy with the changes, but many of his friends were showing typical signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/china/china-zero-covid-relaxation-reaction-intl-hnk/index.html

China’s unprecedented anticovid response response to Omicron revealed in a social media post-pandemic message

Top health officials in Beijing on Wednesday said the changes to the rules were based on scientific evidence, including the spread of the comparatively milder Omicron variant, the vaccination rate, and China’s level of experience in responding to the virus.

But the changes, which come on the heels of a wave of unprecendented protests across the country against harsh Covid restrictions, are a swift about-face for a government long bent on stamping out all infections. While health authorities made slight policy revisions and cautioned against overreach last month, the central government had shown no signs of preparations for an imminent shift in its national strategy.

The government and state media had long emphasized the dangers of the virus and its potential long-term effects – and used this to justify the maintenance of restrictive policies.

Now, a flood of articles highlighting the more mild nature of Omicron and downplaying its risks have created a feeling of whiplash for some, and fall well short of the kind of public messaging campaigns that some other countries carried out before their own pandemic policy changes.

On China’s heavily moderated social media platform Weibo, topics and hashtags related to what to do if infected by Omicron trended high on Thursday morning, while there were numerous reports of panic buying of fever medications.

When they were not told what kind of medicine was needed, they were just told to be careful. Sam Wang, a lawyer in Beijing, said that the policy release felt sudden and arbitrary and that it should have been done a long time ago.

Some people were concerned about living with the virus. Aurora Hao, 27, an English teacher in Beijing said: “I want to keep myself safe, because I could be fine after my first infection, but if I am reinfected a second or third time, I’m not sure what harm that will bring to my body.”

Meanwhile, his mother was now buying high-grade N95 masks and preparing for a “nuclear winter” until a potential initial wave of cases passed, Wang said.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/china/china-zero-covid-relaxation-reaction-intl-hnk/index.html

The effect of a new COVID-19 testing rule on public health and health-related issues in the city – and how to respond to them

Already there has been some contradiction in how the guidelines are implemented as local authorities adjust – and many are watching to see the impact in their cities.

In Beijing, authorities on Wednesday said a health code showing a negative Covid-19 test would still be required for dining in at restaurants or entering some entertainment venues – in conflict with the national guidelines.

Protests against the strictlocks have taken place in a number of cities. The new guidelines go further than those that lead some cities to loosen some restrictions.

But researchers say some aspects of the new rules are ambiguous and open to interpretation by local governments, including when and where to test people during an outbreak, what defines high-risk areas and how to manage them.

In densely populated high-rise buildings in China it will be difficult to limit transmission. George Liu is a public-health researcher at La Trobe University in Australia and he says that if people are allowed to live in their home, it will contribute to viral spread. This could make hospitals overwhelmed.

Researchers say the reopening is not ideal. Winter is peak influenza season so hospitals will already be experiencing a rise in the number of patients. According to an economist at Yale University in Connecticut who studies China’s public-health system, many people will be travelling across the country for the lunar New Year and spring festival.

China doesn’t have a strong system for primary medical care system, such as a network of general practitioners, so people go to hospital for mild conditions, says Xi Chen, who hopes more details on how the government plans to triage care will emerge in the coming days.

Without additional support, the eased restrictions might not help businesses to recover from protracted lockdowns or remove the social stigma attached to COVID-19, says Joy Zhang, a sociologist at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. I am worried that the risk of health and economic issues will be passed on to individuals.

Cowling says that urgent guidance is needed on how to curb transmission during a surge, through mask mandates, work-from- home policies and temporary school closings. It is not clear how officials will track the peak of an infection wave, because of the reduction in testing.

Understanding the impact of vaccination policies on older people: the role of healthcare providers and mobile clinics, a Pedestrian Forum on the Rise in Infections

There is a lack of trust in medical professionals and vaccine hesitancy among older people. Many older people reside in rural and remote parts of the country, so it will take time to immunize them.

The guidelines propose that medical staff be trained to address people’s safety concerns and that mobile clinics be established. But they stop short of issuing vaccine mandates or introducing strong incentives for local governments to increase their vaccination rates, says Huang. Whether the inevitable rise in infections will lead to a spike in deaths remains to be seen. The full impact is still being unfolded, he says.