Following historic protests, PRC loosens virus restrictions
Reuters
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is easing COVID-19 quarantine rules and reducing mass testing, a marked shift after anger over the world’s toughest curbs fueled unprecedented protests that included calls for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping to step down.
Cases remain near record highs, but the changes came as some cities lifted their lockdowns and a top official said the virus’s ability to cause disease was weakening. Local health authorities announcing eased restrictions did not mention the protests — the biggest show of civil disobedience in China for years — which ranged from candlelit vigils in Beijing to street clashes in Shanghai as police pepper-sprayed demonstrators calling for Xi’s resignation and an end to one-party rule.
The protests — which began November 25, 2022, and spread to cities and dozens of university campuses — are the most widespread show of opposition to the ruling party in decades. (Pictured: Protesters hold up blank paper, representing state censorship, and chant slogans during a march in Beijing in late November 2022.)
In a video of the protest in Shanghai, chants against Xi, the nation’s most powerful leader since at least the 1980s, and the CCP sounded loud and clear: “Xi Jinping! Step down! CCP! Step down!”
The measures were expected to include less mass testing, as well as allowing people who test positive and their close contacts to isolate at home under certain conditions, sources said. That is a far cry from earlier protocols that prompted frustration as entire communities were locked down, sometimes for weeks, after even one positive case.
Three years after the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, the PRC is the only major country still trying to stop transmission of COVID-19, with some cities testing millions of residents daily under the “zero COVID” strategy.
While that has kept the PRC’s reported infection numbers lower than those of other major countries, public acceptance has worn thin. People quarantined at home say they lack food and medicine. The CCP also faced public anger after the deaths of two children whose parents said antivirus controls hampered efforts to get medical help.
The latest protests erupted after a fire killed at least 10 people in an apartment building in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region in northwest China, where some residents have been locked in their homes for four months.
Less than 24 hours after violent protests in Guangzhou, authorities in at least seven districts of the sprawling manufacturing hub said they were lifting temporary lockdowns. Beijing city officials, meanwhile, announced they would no longer erect gates to block access to residential areas with reported infections.
Momentum toward a landmark shift built December 1 as Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who oversees COVID-19 efforts, said the omicron variant was weakening, allowing for improved prevention.
Analysts with the Japanese financial services firm Nomura said that Sun’s comments, “in addition to the notable easing of COVID control measures in Guangzhou … sends yet another strong signal that the zero-COVID policy will end within the next few months.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
