China’s zero Covid policy
The beginning of the end
The Communist Party in China, with its zero-Covid policy, has not only lost the fight against the virus, but also the people’s trust.
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China is struggling with the consequences of the abrupt opening policy. Long queues form in front of hospitals…
Only two people across China died of Covid in one day, Communist Party organs reported. Experts and scientists, on the other hand, spoke a completely different language: they estimate that at least 2,700 people died in Beijing alone.
A projection by the University of Hong Kong comes to the fatal conclusion that China’s Covid-19 opening could kill a million people this winter. Ruler Xi has disappeared. In his last public statement on November 10, he praised his zero-Covid policy as the last word of wisdom.
Then came the protests, and the nomenklatura suddenly realized that they couldn’t continue the lockdown that began almost three years ago. The abolition of the entire regimentation apparatus quickly revealed that Beijing has no real strategy for dealing with the omicron variant of the virus. The Party says: Now everyone in China must fight for themselves. Videos show overcrowded hospitals, body bags and crematoria at the limit. It’s all Xi Jinping’s fault.
The Chinese no longer believe the state propaganda that tries to make them believe that everything is going great. At the same time, millions upon millions of people have trusted in the Party’s support and guidance. You are not used to having to make your own decisions now. The party has lost the population and this may be the beginning of the end of the communist tyranny in China. The coming weeks will decide whether Xi has to step down to ensure the party’s continued existence.
*Alexander Görlach is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York. His book “Red Alert: Why Beijing’s aggressive foreign policy in the western Pacific is leading to a global war” was recently published.