Covid-19 and the Chinese Communist Party: An Empirical Study of the Phenomenology of a Young Fraud in China
Outside China, the beginning of the Covid-19 epidemic began to raise questions about the legitimacy of the Communist Party and its leader.
The video that shows her yelling abuse at the hazmat-suited workers below has gone on to become a hit on Weibo and shows the Chinese public’s increasing frustration with their government’s uncompromising zero- Covid policy.
A woman is yelling at workers who have been under an escort for half a year. They looked back, seemingly unaware of what was happening.
While most Asian economies are abandoning current restrictions on travel, China’s authorities remain steadfast in their determination to win the battle against the virus, telling state-run media this week that the fight is still possible.
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.
China’s Anti-Covid-19 Protest in the First Month of the New Xi-Raifeartaigh Era
There are a lot of people in China’s capital who are concerned about a public protest against the president. Say no to the Covid test, yes to the food. Yes, to freedom and no to lock it up. To dignity is not to lie. To reform is not a cultural revolution. No to great leader, yes to vote. There was increased security surrounding the Congress, which is why a banner was hung over an overpass with the words: Don’t be a slave, be a citizen.
The location of the protest was immediately removed from search results on Weibel, a social media platform. Key words, including Beijing,Haidian,warrior,brave man, and even ‘courage’ were not available for search before long.
The accounts on Weibo and in China’s most popular app, WeChat, have been removed after they commented on the protest.
Many spoke out to show their support and awe. Some shared the Chinese pop hit “Lonely Warrior” in a veiled reference to the protester, who some called a “hero,” while others swore never to forget, posting under the hashtag: “I saw it.”
But, now, as Xi steps into an expected new era of his rule, that system – known today as the “dynamic zero-Covid” policy – is facing both social and economic pushback.
CNN believes that at least 300 million people were affected by full or partial lockdowns in China last month.
The city reported 47 Covid-19 cases on Thursday, one day after authorities ordered six out of its 13 districts to shut entertainment venues such as internet cafes, cinemas and bars. Some attractions have been suspended since Sunday at the Disney resort.
Beijing’s failure to take the lead on the fight against the Covid outbreak in Inner Mongolia has provoked a punitive response with China’s central government
People in the city have reportedly been buying more water than they need because of the potential for unpredictable and unexpected snap lock downs.
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 also seen an uptick in cases in domestic tourist destinations, despite its strict curbs having discouraged people from traveling or spending over China’s Golden Week holiday in early October.
More than 240,000 university students in Inner Mongolia have been locked down on campuses due to the latest outbreak, according to Zhang Xiaoying, a deputy director of the regional Department of Education. And the outbreak on campus has led to punitive action, with one university Communist Party boss being sacked after 39 students from his institution tested positive.
22 million people have been banned from leaving the west of China’s far western region, which means they are forced to stay. The tally shows that on Thursday, there were more than 400 new cases in the region.
Beijing seems unwilling to move from its hardline stance. The Communist Party of China’s people’s Daily published commentaries stating that China wouldn’t let its guard down.
The battle against Covid was winnable, it insisted. 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.”
Xi Jinping Zero Covid Intl+hnk: A Day Out in China with Mobile Health Superapps and QR Codes
Nearly three years later, however, Xi is poised to cement his place as China’s most powerful leader in decades, when he is anointed with a likely norm-breaking third term as the party chief on Sunday.
As China’s Communist Party National Congress meets this week to approve the party’s priorities for the next five years, many are watching for signs restrictions could be loosened. It would require a leader who wanted to extend the party’s control over daily life to change the policy.
China’s advanced online ecosystem – run on mobile phone superapps and ubiquitous QR codes – has offered arguably unrivaled convenience for consumers to shop, dine and travel. Now, those technologies play a role in constraining daily life.
Mobile phone health codes are the backbone of a system designed to track citizens and designate whether they are cleared to enter various venues, upping state control on people’s movement to an extent never before seen in China.
Across the country, basic activities like going to the grocery store, riding public transport, or entering an office building depend on holding an up-to-date, negative Covid test and not being flagged as a close contact of a patient – data points reflected by a color code.
If someone in the general vicinity ends up testing positive for a vaccine, going out in public can be a risk, as being barricaded into a mall or office building as part of a snap lockdown could simply depend on what happens in the general vicinity.
“(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.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/20/china/china-party-congress-xi-jinping-zero-covid-intl-hnk/index.html
The cost of a zero-Covid policy is too high compared to the current one: a counterexample to the frustration of China’s political leaders
There have been three similar editorials released last week by the People’s Daily, with one stating that the essence of persisting with zero- Covid is to put people first and prioritize life.
“What makes you think that you won’t be on that late-night bus one day?” read a viral comment, which garnered more than 250,000 likes before it was censored – one of a number of glimpses into rising frustration with the cost of the policy.
Last week, a rare political protest in Beijing saw banners hung from a bridge along the capital’s busy Third Ring Road that zoned in on social controls under the policy.
At the opening of the party’s 5-yearly leadership shuffle on Sunday, China’s president declared that the Communist Party had protected people’s health and safety to the greatest extent.
The impact of those controls is getting more pronounced as people are left with less access to food and medicine and grappling with lost income and a mental toll.
The Party Congress takes place in the run up to it and local authorities sought to rein in any possible outbreak of disease.
“At the same time, the threat posed by Covid is reduced because of the higher vaccine coverage and the availability of antivirals. 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.
“One scenario is that (China) might drop the zero-Covid policy, but some of the key components of the policy might be retained and repurposed,” said Huang, pointing to Xi’s focus on maximizing security in China, including via high tech means.
Outside experts say that, since the virus will stay in circulation beyond China, keeping tight controls and closed borders is just delaying the inevitable, and the focus should be on preparing, for example through raising elderly vaccination rates and increasing ICU capacity, as well as getting or expanding access to the most effective vaccines and treatments.
While China backed a massive vaccination campaign since early 2021, it has relied on homegrown shots, which produce lower levels of protective antibodies than mRNA vaccines developed in the West.
If you don’t see effort to prepare for the change, that means they aren’t planning to change the policy any time soon.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/20/china/china-party-congress-xi-jinping-zero-covid-intl-hnk/index.html
Economic and Social Downturns of a New Zero-Covid Policy in China During the First Day of the 12th Resummation of Covid-19
In the past the health code system has been used to diffuse social protest, with petitioning who lost their savings in rural banks being barred from protesting after their health codes inexplicably turned red.
China’s stringent zero- covid policy has been reduced in a sign of a limited easing of it.
The new measures were announced Friday following a meeting by the ruling Communist Party’s top decision-making body, during which leaders vowed to maintain Covid protocols while stressing the need to minimize economic and social disruptions.
The zero-tolerance approach has faced increasing challenges from highly transmissible new variants, and its heavy economic and social costs have drawn mounting public backlash.
The easing of the measures will see authorities scrap the so-called “circuit breaker” mechanism, under which China-bound flights were suspended if an airline was found to carry a certain number of passengers who tested positive for Covid upon landing.
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. After the noon break, the Hang Seng Index was up 7 points, while the mainland China’s benchmark index was up 2.5%.
People who are close with Covid-19 cases will now have their sterilization reduced to five days and 3 days at home, under the new guidelines.
On Friday, the National Health Commission said “optimizing and adjusting” the rules do not amount to a relaxation of prevention and control measures, but the latest steps were being taken “to adapt the new characteristics of the virus and the new COVID prevention situation,” it said.
The government reported 10,535 new domestically transmitted cases on Thursday, the highest in months, and the authorities girded for the situation to worsen.
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.