Party Like It is 1989

28 November 2022

 

Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Chinese Covid Protesters Call for President Xi to Resign

 

The Zero-Covid policy of the Chinese Communist Party is on its last legs. The idea of draconian lock-downs to combat the spread of the disease made sense in the early days. There was no real treatment, let alone a cure or a vaccine. Isolating the infected from everyone else kept the Chinese death toll down. Three years on, with effective vaccines and a couple of decent treatments, there is much less reason for the policy. Indeed, the Chinese people are beginning to lose patience with the regime. There have been protests against local authorities for decades in the PRC. This week-end, though, there were protests in major cities where protesters called for both President Xi and the Communist Party to step down. The president needs to relax his policy, but he will not. He is too closely tied to Zero-Covid.

The BBC reports, "The latest unrest follows a protest in the north-western city of Urumqi, where lockdown rules were blamed for hampering rescue efforts after a tower block fire in which 10 people died. China\'s authorities have denied those claims." Urumqi is the capital city of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, and its population of Uighurs is persecuted by the Han Chinese majority in the country. One cannot exclude a racist dimension in this particular case.

The Beeb adds, "The zero-Covid strategy is the last policy of its kind among the world\'s major economies, and is partly due to China\'s relatively low vaccination levels and an effort to protect elderly people.

"Snap lockdowns have caused anger across the country - and Covid restrictions more broadly have trigged recent violent protests from Zhengzhou to Guangzhou. In spite of the stringent measures, China\'s case numbers this week hit all-time records since the pandemic began."

That last point is the important one. Regardless of any fires, factory shut downs or restrictions on travel, the numbers are higher: more cases, more hospitalizations, and therefore, more deaths. While the numbers are probably lower than they would otherwise be without the lock-downs, they are higher than ever, and that creates problems for the government. The policy is not working as it used to.

China has failed to vaccinate its population as effectively as it should have. Resources went instead to test and tracking efforts. The locally created vaccine is adequate, but compared to the Pfizer and Moderna shots, the Chinese version comes up short. The PRC, however, will not purchase those to inject into its vulnerable citizens for reasons of national pride.

The result is that the ChiCom leadership is stuck. They cannot bring themselves to abandon Zero-Covid nor modify it to any noticeable degree. However, the policy to which they have nailed their colors is failing to deliver. The result is street protests that go well beyond giving local authorities a hard time. The protesters want the big shots to answer for their policies.

The BBC further reported,

And yet there they were on the Shanghai street (Wulumuqi Lu) which carries the name of the Xinjiang city where a fire had killed 10 residents, and zero-Covid restrictions were blamed for hampering the rescue effort.

One protester calls out: "Xi Jinping!"

And hundreds reply: "Step down!"

Again and again: "Xi Jinping! Step down! Xi Jinping! Step down!"

The chant also went out: "Communist Party! Step down! Communist Party! Step down!"

Conditions have not reached the point they did in Tiananmen Square in 1989, when protesters filled the main square of Beijing for days, only to be brutally removed by the army, which killed thousands. If the authorities can bend a bit, they may be able to cool things off. They will likely use more force rather than bend, however. So, the protesters may have more to do.

© Copyright 2022 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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