China made the world think it handled Covid well but paying the price now [details]

China’s infamous zero-covid policy was always partly intended to send a certain message to the world. However, experts and ground reports raised concerns over arbitrary measures, over containment in the name of clamping down the virus.

China has shown record number of new cases in the recent days, despite stringent lockdowns. On Thursday, after a block in a high-rise building in Urumqi, western China, caught fire killing 10 people, protests across the nation began. Many Chinese believe that the deaths could have been averted if it wasn’t for Covid restrictions. The authorities deny this claim.

Protestors vs authorities

However, the weekend protests, against Covid restrictions, took over China, making the authorities clamp down again. Thousand to the streets in different pockets of the country demanding the end of lockdowns and restrictions. While Beijing saw a lot of planned protests, in Shanghai the authorities erected large barriers across the protest routes and arrested many.

The official clampdowns have only furthered the resolve of Chinese to get out on the streets again. In a measure believed to be an image-control exercise, National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng, said in a press conference, “We are going to maintain and control the negative impact to people’s livelihoods and lives.” Heavy police presence was the past week in cities of Beijing and Shanghai.

As per a BBC report, a small protest in the southern city of Hangzhou night was also quickly stopped with people swiftly arrested. The social media footage of the incident also went viral. Some reports and social media posts also claim that the police stopped people, searched their phones for VPNs, chat history and apps like Twitter and Telegram which are blocked in China. There are also reports that police have been visiting people’s homes to ask if they had been to the protest site, calling even peaceful protests as, “illegal assembly.”

Meanwhile, the health agencies are speeding up efforts and measures to vaccinate the elderly, many of whom they say are still unvaccinated.

The authorities stand their ground

Meanwhile, as protests escalate and show so sign of abating, China has vowed to crackdown on, what it calls ‘hostile forces.’ China’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which belongs to the ruling Communist Party, has said that, “it was necessary to crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces in accordance with the law.”

The protests have not been demanding an end to covid-restrictions but even political freedom. State news agency Xinhua, has been denying all anti-government claims and reports trickling into social media. After a BBC journalist covering Covid protests was arrested and assaulted, Britain on Tuesday, summoned the Chinese ambassador in London to display its strong disapproval of the development.