Time.news – China defends the Covid zero line amid protests that have broken out in many cities, starting with Beijing and Shanghai, over the line of intolerance towards the virus, which are turning into the toughest test for the Chinese leadership, and for the Xi himself.
The social exasperation it mixes with the ingrained fear of the virus, while China marks a record of infections for the fifth consecutive day, over forty thousand, since the beginning of the pandemic. A fire in a residential building in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, which left ten dead, linked to strict anti-Covid policy sparked weekend protests, where protesters in Shanghai openly called for the CCP and the government to step down. Xi himself: meanwhile, the Urumqi Road area of the metropolis, where yesterday’s protests took place, was cordoned off and manned by the police to prevent further demonstrations.
Beijing denies the link between the protests and the events that took place in the capital of Xinjiang – where the authorities had to apologise, while denying a link between the facts and the virus containment policies – and speaks of “forces with ulterior motives” who have insisted on the connection. China also claims that concerns about the safety of Chinese lives are “absolutely unnecessary”, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
A BBC journalist, Edward Lawrence, was also involved in the arrests in Shanghai over the protests. attacked and detained by the policein an episode that “profoundly disturbed” the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, the association not officially recognized by the Chinese government which represents foreign journalists in the country.
The attack and the arrest were condemned by the British government as “unacceptable” and by the broadcaster itself, which said it was “extremely concerned” about the episode for which it said it had no official explanation or apology from the Chinese authorities. The BBC reporter would not have identified himself as suchsaid Zhao Lijian, and “did not voluntarily submit his credentials” to the officers.
The weekend protests, which swept across 16 cities, according to CNN calculations, were the largest in decades, perhaps even since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, and represent the culmination, so far, of the exasperation against restrictions and lockdowns imposed by the zero Covid policy.
Protesters with white papers, which have become one of the symbols of the protest, question the government’s line against the virus, demanding freedom, instead of daily or 48-hour swabs: who expected easing of the anti-Covid lines after the CCP Congress last month was disappointed, hearing the Chinese president reaffirm the line and seeing the leaders who have implemented the most drastic measures at the local level promoted, starting with the likely next prime minister, Li Qiang, party secretary in Shanghai during the lockdown of last April and May.
The exasperation mixes with anger over the handling of the pandemic, often documented by videos circulating on Chinese social networks before the blackout by censorship, and the protests are shaking markets, in Asia and elsewhere. From Tsinghua students to Foxoconn employees, the anti-Covid protest involves multiple sectors of society, and even if China intends to produce further easing of the Covid zero line, points out to the BBC itself Yazhong Huang, global health analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, should deal with the increase in infections.
In the Shanghai protests it is also echoed the protest cry of a man on an overpass of the capital who last month, before being arrested, had posted banners clearly visible to all, in which he called for the resignation of Xi and the end of the zero Covid restrictions.
In the meantime, the protests are never mentioned directly in the state media, while editorials that appeared today call for greater “timeliness” of the anti-Covid measures. “The more critical the moment, the more we must maintain our strategic determination and confidence in winning the battle”, is the tone of a commentary article by the CCTV, while the People’s Daily underlines that “effective measures require strong implementation by all”.
Beijing, meanwhile – where demonstrations were concentrated at the prestigious Tsinghua University and in the night between yesterday and today in Liangmaqiao, in the embassy area – aims to optimize online commerce and food stocks in the face of a situation deemed “serious” and has come to “a critical moment”, with around 30% of riders remaining stranded due to the measures in place, local authorities confirmed today.