Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Sunday quashed any hope that the “zero Covid” policy – an attempt to eliminate coronavirus infections with costly lockdown measures – would come to an end in the coming months.
Mr. Xi argued that the Communist Party had waged an “all-out people’s war to prevent the spread of the virus.” China’s leaders have done all they can to protect people’s health, he said, putting “the people and their lives first”. He did not mention that strict measures are holding back economic growth and upset residents.
Mr. Xi emphasized that “0 Covid“Saved lives. It would seem that giving up on it, he suggested, would be to disregard human life.
The message – delivered by Mr. Xi at the party congress – reinforced a recent flurry of propaganda carried by state media earlier this week to counter growing speculation that China could expand loosen tough pandemic restrictions after the meeting.
For the rest of the world, where more effective vaccines and treatments have reduced the number of deaths caused by Covid-19, China’s approach no longer makes sense.
But China is still trying to contain the virus even as it becomes increasingly difficult to do so, led by a popular belief that easing would be too dangerous for vulnerable citizens like elderly people and will overwhelm the country’s fragile hospital system.
Mr. Xi on Sunday also reiterated a common refrain that China has been internationally acclaimed for its independent approach to Covid, cementing its influence on the international stage.
Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the claim was true early on in the pandemic, when China was praised for its use of lockdown measures across the globe. to prevent the spread of the virus. By 2021, the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the new coronavirus just a year earlier, supply the rest of the world a glimpse into a post-pandemic world as residents move on with their lives while other countries grapple with devastating outbreaks.
But when a more infectious variant of Omicron broke through China’s 0 Covid bastion earlier this year, officials had to enforce increasingly stringent measures to make it possible to continuously target the virus. prevent viruses. The approach has isolated China from the world and brought heavy damage to its economy.
“International reverence for Beijing’s Covid response approach has fallen rapidly and dramatically, which has undermined China’s soft power, especially in the Western world,” Huang said. West”.
There are also Evidence is growing At home, people’s patience with China’s approach to fighting Covid is waning. A nationwide mass testing request was supposed to ease the pressure inactive as officials rushed to close more and more cities.
Beyond the economy, experts have questioned how Xi will turn away from a policy that has dominated the lives of 1.4 billion people for nearly three years.
“There is nothing positive or aspirational about zero Covid,” said Jude Blanchette, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Instead, it’s a sword of Damocles hanging over people’s heads, Mr. Blanchette said, adding, “you know you’re only a few cases away from being able to lock up.”
