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Chinese leader Xi Jinping appears to be rethinking his zero-Covid policy.
Tanya von Arxforeign editor
The anger has to come out. Many people are still taking to the streets in China. The reason: the country’s zero-Covid strategy. Under the leadership of Xi Jinping (69), China is the last major economy to enforce ultra-strict corona restrictions – and has been for almost three years. Even small outbreaks can result in entire cities being locked down. According to estimates, hundreds of millions of people and around a fifth of the economy are currently being affected by lockdowns.
Despite all the uprisings and unrest since the weekend, the government initially remained firm. The police presence was increased and the protests put down. A news blackout was also imposed in connection with the demos.
But now there seems to be a reversal. As the “Economist” reports, two of China’s largest cities, Chongqinq and Guangzhou, want to relax the corona measures. According to the state news agency Xinhua, Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chunlan (72) said that the pandemic was in a “new stage”.
Vaccination campaign should be strengthened
Sun went on to explain exactly what that means. “As the omicron variant has become less pathogenic, more people are being vaccinated and we have gained more experience in Covid prevention, our fight against the pandemic is at a new stage and brings with it new tasks.” According to the Reuters news agency, Sun also announced a “human approach” to fighting the pandemic. However, she did not make any direct reference to Head of State Xi’s zero-Covid policy.
The government had previously announced that it would intensify its vaccination campaign, especially among the elderly. Older people in the 1.4 billion country were vaccinated less for fear of side effects.
Rapid opening is “counterproductive and dangerous”
However, Deputy Prime Minister Sun’s announcement comes at a precarious time: the capital Beijing has recorded around 5,000 new corona cases at the same time – a record.
A quick opening is “counterproductive and dangerous,” said Timo Ulrichs, an expert on global health at the Akkon University of Human Sciences in Berlin, on Monday of the German Press Agency. The Chinese have almost no adequate immune protection. China has a low vaccination rate and an additional problem: no mRNA vaccines are approved in the country. The government relies on specially developed vaccines that are not particularly good and do not work for long.
The government was able to temporarily control the virus with the tough measures. But in the meantime the country should have been vaccinated to build up sufficient immune protection. This could have gradually softened the tough Corona policy.