Stuff Digital Edition

China rethinks zero-tolerance Covid strategy after protests

China’s top official in charge of Covid-19 controls has signalled a new chapter in the country’s zero-tolerance strategy as cities move to relax some measures after rare public protests.

Sun Chunlan, a vice-premier, who has led the battle against the coronavirus for the past three years, acknowledged for the first time that the Omicron variant is more transmissible but less deadly than others, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

Sun made no mention of the ‘‘dynamic zero-Covid’’ policy in her latest remarks, suggesting that the approach that has disrupted the economy and daily life for China’s 1.4 billion people may soon be relaxed.

The authorities had argued that mass testing, sudden lockdowns and travel restrictions remained necessary in China as the new variant risked causing too many deaths.

Frustration at the measures boiled over at the weekend, with protests in several cities on a scale not witnessed since the

Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989.

A large proportion of the population has remained confined to their homes or forced to undergo regular testing as the rest of the world opens up.

The authorities have vowed to crack down on any dissent by ‘‘hostile forces’’, and reports suggest those arrested in connection with the unrest have been detained for days or had their phones confiscated by police. Among them is a 27-yearold man, given the alias ‘‘Wang’’, who led calls for President Xi Jinping to step down at a protest in Shanghai and has not been seen since being arrested on Sunday.

On a visit to Beijing yesterday, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said he had brought up the issue of the protests when he met the Chinese president and also raised human rights issues, including the right to assemble. He said Europe would be willing to provide vaccines to China, should officials in Beijing agree to it.

As well as erecting barricades and deploying security forces to maintain order, cities across China have been urged to take a more targeted approach to tackle outbreaks, fine-tuning 20 measures imposed to control rising cases almost three weeks ago.

Local officials in Beijing, where student protesters called for freedom and criticised Xi, said they would scale back daily testing requirements by exempting the elderly, students, teachers and others working from home this week.

Public venues will still require a negative test result within 48 hours, however. Residents in the capital will be told that people with positive test results can quarantine at home and neighbours should self-monitor – instead of being compelled to go to a quarantine facility or be placed in lockdown.

‘‘We also suggest residents to purchase medicines and antigen testing kits, and keep testing yourself,’’ a notice said.

Guangzhou, a manufacturing hub in southern China, also lifted some measures after residents rebelled against weeks-long lockdowns, indicating that some close contacts of Covid cases would be allowed to isolate at home rather than in quarantine centres.

Sun suggested that a new vaccination campaign targeting older people would help to mitigate the effects of the virus in the ‘‘new situation’’ facing the country. She insisted the government has ‘‘always put people’s health and safety first, and effectively dealt with the uncertainties of the Covid-19 situation with a consistent strategy and flexible measures to fight the virus’’.

Up to a fifth of China’s economy is affected by the zero-Covid measures, including vegetable farmers who are unable to sell produce in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin in the north, where local markets have been closed and supply chains are cut off.

Having previously lauded Xi’s success in minimising illness and deaths compared with the West, the Chinese media seems to be tweaking its narrative on pandemic controls, emphasising that people can recover from an infection.

The Beijing News interviewed two 87-year-olds who have underlying heart and lung conditions but recovered from Covid, reporting that the illness was ‘‘like a bad cold’’.

Opposition activists have taken heart from this week’s demonstrations. Speaking from Tokyo, Wang Dan, a leader of the Tiananmen Square protests, who was jailed and then exiled in the ensuing crackdown, said the latest dissent exploded Beijing’s narrative of a ‘‘harmonious society’’ and could signal a new ‘‘protest era’’.

World

en-nz

2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281728388542311

Stuff Limited