Mary Wilson
Well-known member
December 2, 2022
By Yuen Yuen Ang
The Chinese people’s frustration with their government’s “zero COVID” policy has reached a boiling point. Starting on November 26, protests erupted across multiple cities, with people taking to the streets and demanding an end to harsh lockdowns. Many held up pieces of blank white paper, protesting wordlessly against censorship. A few others went beyond criticizing public health restrictions, taking aim at the authoritarian political system. “We don’t want COVID tests! We want freedom!” a group of demonstrators in Shanghai chanted, repeating words from an earlier lone protestor who unfurled a banner on a bridge in Beijing. It has been more than 30 years since China has seen simultaneous and spontaneous protests that cut across social groups, coupled with calls for freedom. The last time, of course, was during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, which rattled China’s ruling elite to the core and ended in a bloody crackdown.
What will Beijing do next? Since the protests began, central health officials have signaled an easing of COVID-19 restrictions, and the cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing have relaxed their pandemic control measures almost overnight. At the same time, security forces have increased their presence across cities nationwide. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been conspicuously silent. In the absence of explicit orders from Xi, combined with an urgent need to calm the protests, these reactions from central technocrats and local authorities may be signs of improvisation rather than a plan.
The fog of uncertainty is thick, but there is no question that this is a momentous juncture in twenty-first-century Chinese history. This is perhaps the first time that Chinese citizens have rallied together to resist a national policy—and appeared, so far, to have made the authorities change course. Such an event could bring progress or doom, depending on whether the top leadership heeds or silences the voice of the people.
STUCK IN 2020
Since the development of effective vaccines, most countries have emerged from pandemic controls and returned to normal. China stands alone in its obsession with eliminating the virus. Beijing’s zero-COVID policy has been ruinous: damaging the economy, depleting local government finances, and provoking widespread anger against the regime. The only thing that Xi cares about more than the economy is security and social stability. So why has his leadership seemed to sabotage itself? ...
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/problem-zero-xi-pandemic-policy-crisis
By Yuen Yuen Ang
The Chinese people’s frustration with their government’s “zero COVID” policy has reached a boiling point. Starting on November 26, protests erupted across multiple cities, with people taking to the streets and demanding an end to harsh lockdowns. Many held up pieces of blank white paper, protesting wordlessly against censorship. A few others went beyond criticizing public health restrictions, taking aim at the authoritarian political system. “We don’t want COVID tests! We want freedom!” a group of demonstrators in Shanghai chanted, repeating words from an earlier lone protestor who unfurled a banner on a bridge in Beijing. It has been more than 30 years since China has seen simultaneous and spontaneous protests that cut across social groups, coupled with calls for freedom. The last time, of course, was during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, which rattled China’s ruling elite to the core and ended in a bloody crackdown.
What will Beijing do next? Since the protests began, central health officials have signaled an easing of COVID-19 restrictions, and the cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing have relaxed their pandemic control measures almost overnight. At the same time, security forces have increased their presence across cities nationwide. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been conspicuously silent. In the absence of explicit orders from Xi, combined with an urgent need to calm the protests, these reactions from central technocrats and local authorities may be signs of improvisation rather than a plan.
The fog of uncertainty is thick, but there is no question that this is a momentous juncture in twenty-first-century Chinese history. This is perhaps the first time that Chinese citizens have rallied together to resist a national policy—and appeared, so far, to have made the authorities change course. Such an event could bring progress or doom, depending on whether the top leadership heeds or silences the voice of the people.
STUCK IN 2020
Since the development of effective vaccines, most countries have emerged from pandemic controls and returned to normal. China stands alone in its obsession with eliminating the virus. Beijing’s zero-COVID policy has been ruinous: damaging the economy, depleting local government finances, and provoking widespread anger against the regime. The only thing that Xi cares about more than the economy is security and social stability. So why has his leadership seemed to sabotage itself? ...
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/problem-zero-xi-pandemic-policy-crisis