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China’s Workers in Strike Back Against the State’s Strict COVID Regulations

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Discontent with severe Residents clashed with police in China’s megacity this week over COVID-19 laws, China is the only major economy fighting breakouts. “Dynamic zero COVID” has reduced virus-related mortality, but it has stifled the economy, reducing exports and increasing youth unemployment.
Monday night, social media showed outraged Guangzhou residents rushing barriers and kicking down fences after a curfew was prolonged owing to surging case numbers.
Health professionals entrusted with segregating communities were overpowered by a big mob of largely young males during a riot in the 1.8 million-person Haizhu district.

Later, police dispersed the crowd, witnesses said. Newsweek couldn’t independently authenticate further videos showing police vehicles patrolling an empty avenue and pushing citizens to follow public health standards. China is facing its largest COVID waves since the pandemic began three years ago. In Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, conditions are very awful.

The second-most populous city in China is home to many poor migrant workers whose work is irregular and whose living situations aren’t suitable to quarantine.
This week’s rare skirmishes with local authorities were sparked by a lack of cash from shuttered factories and lost transport routes out of the region, as well as a food crisis during lockdown. Near-daily testing was expected in “high-risk” neighborhoods.

Political expert and former Chinese diplomat Han Yang said in a recent interview, that demonstrators face prosecution. “Chinese policymakers prioritize order and stability and will not tolerate protests that could spread.” The flare-up recalled scenes from Shanghai, China’s richest metropolis, in spring, when 25 million people were locked down for two months to contain the country’s worst surge.

Residents protested by banging pots and pans and singing from high-rise windows. Others rejected centralized quarantine in poor facilities as daily mass PCR testing proceeded across the city, but most complied. Regardless of affluence, all suffered from lack of resources and isolation. Over 90% of new cases in Guangzhou, like in Shanghai, are asymptomatic. Despite weeks of on-and-off lockdowns, no serious or critical patients or deaths have been reported.

President Xi Jinping has moved to revise his flagship public health strategy amid growing public discontent with pandemic control expenses, especially among the middle class.

Last Monday, he announced a 20-point optimization plan to China’s senior leaders. Reduced quarantine period and less targeted contact tracking were implemented. The central government prohibited unnecessary mass testing and catch-all neighborhood regulations.

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COVID remained a threat; Xi’s strategy had worked in the past and would work again, an indication he had put too much political capital in the position to reverse it quickly and publicly.
Huang Kunming, CCP secretary in Guangdong, visited Guangzhou on Tuesday and urged health officials to “win the battle” against the virus by speeding up the building of field hospitals and centralized quarantine facilities.

“It’s an illustration of Beijing’s zero-COVID approach and the 20-point relaxation plan,” Han remarked. “Local governments will adopt tough measures as long as zero COVID is a guiding principle. No alternative exists.” Shanghai’s shutdown devastated exports and frightened investors. Guangzhou’s shutdown could have global repercussions.
Recent history suggests Huang was right to follow party line for political convenience. Li Qiang, who handled Shanghai’s citywide lockdown as party secretary, lost his promotion chance after the performance.

Li, a Xi loyalist, was appointed as China’s No. 2 leader and presumably its new premier next March when Xi won a third term as CCP general secretary last month.

Yanzhong Huang, a CFR senior fellow for global health, said Li’s promotion shows “being more Catholic than the pope pays off.” Mid-April, Shanghai’s spike in cases pushed China’s daily COVID infections to under 30,000. By Wednesday, most of China’s approximately 40,000 new illnesses were in Guangzhou, with no peak in sight.

The continued surge in cases, combined with the official zero-tolerance attitude, might have major ramifications for the national policy, said Huang, especially when local governments turn to more indiscriminate tactics to offer flexibility.

“Localities with little capacity and little epidemic experience are more prone to employ severe measures,” he told Newsweek.

Urumqi, capital of northwestern Xinjiang, was under lockdown for the 100th day Wednesday as cases surged to double digits. Reports abound of starving locals.

Guangzhou’s government lacks Shanghai’s resources and its constituents’ affluence, so the Chinese leadership faces a different test there. It could make southern unrest tougher to calm. An outbreak at the world’s largest iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou, Henan province, threatens livelihoods and Apple’s holiday stock. Local village cadres took over when hundreds of personnel left for fear of illness.

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Thursday, Zhengzhou officials faced more public outrage over the death of a 4-month-old infant who died of disease in a quarantine hotel after her father waited 11 hours for help. In early November, a 3-year-old boy died after his father spent an hour breaking out of their locked-down residential compound to reach a hospital.
Systemic constraints hinder China’s COVID exit. Despite attempts to amend the regulation, officials are rarely penalised and, as Li’s case indicates, incentivized to wipe out epidemics.

Beijing’s hand may be forced by bottom-up pressure, especially if the strategy’s financial weight grows. China’s testing infrastructure might cost hundreds of billions annually. Chinese citizens and international nationalities must have green health codes in WeChat to visit public locations. Cash-strapped municipal governments are unable to finance regular PCR tests.

Huang: “When people have to pay for tests, access to these facilities will be harder.” “Many will be upset.” Beijing continues to hint at the risks of a nationwide easing of COVID laws, which might take up to 1.5 million lives due to China’s vast aging population and under-resourced health care system.

Huang says the central government has made no preparations for a genuine transformation. Beijing’s own figures suggest otherwise, but the immunization rate among China’s elderly has stayed mostly steady in the past three months.

Huang stated that if the central government is serious about shifting away from zero COVID, it should start preparing public opinion, beginning a vaccination program, investing in surge capacity, and adopting triage procedures so only severe cases are treated in hospitals. Huang: “We don’t know how effective Chinese vaccines are or if they can survive a quick spike in cases” “The future of China’s zero-COVID strategy depends on whether the central government will keep to this approach and how confident they are in their vaccinations.”

In the CCP’s flagship People’s Daily newspaper on Tuesday, “Zhong Yin” stated China’s routine disease prevention and control efforts were scientific and accurate and balanced public health and the national economy.

There was no room for complacency with “grave uncertainty” about the pandemic’s direction, it warned, while recognizing public “inconveniences.”

The editorial warned against heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all tactics to fighting the virus. As is typically the case, local leaders must implement the sentiment.

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China hasn’t approved mRNA vaccinations. Even if it did, achieving the target vaccination rate could take 6-12 months.

“The coming weeks will be crucial for zero COVID’s future,” he said. “Persistence is success,” the piece said.

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