BEIJING - Even before millions of Chinese citizens started heading back to their home villages for Chinese New Year, tensions were brewing across the nation over annual bans on fireworks. 

Unrest boiled over in early January, when residents of a central Chinese city flipped over a police car during a heated altercation with law enforcement over the right to set off fireworks, a traditional practice to banish bad luck and usher in a new year.

While people usually complain about the curbs, the response this year was unusually violent. 

What’s even more surprising is how quickly the government backed down.

Even though the suspects were swiftly nabbed by the authorities, cities across China - from the central metropolis of Zhengzhou to Kunming in the southwest - started lifting fireworks restrictions in some urban areas during specified hours. 

The swift retreat underscores how much Chinese President Xi Jinping and his coterie are concerned with a potential backlash as families reunite all across the nation just weeks after he abruptly lifted Covid-19 restrictions.

With a deluge of cases, crowded hospitals, overwhelmed crematoriums and a struggling economy, residents will have plenty to talk about - and none of it makes Mr Xi look great. 

“Xi Jinping is embarrassed, and the Chinese people unhappy with the bungled opening - wondering what the last three years were all about if it ends like this,” said Mr Frank Tsai, a lecturer at the Emlyon Business School’s Shanghai campus.

“This may therefore explain tentative moves toward responsiveness and openness.”

Since the historic wave of anti-lockdown protests in November last year broke a taboo on calling for the removal of the Communist Party, and even Mr Xi himself, more people are speaking out despite China’s massive surveillance system and rigorous censorship apparatus.

Besides the unrest over the fireworks, students have protested prolonged lockdowns of campuses after the government’s pivot, while inbound travellers at airports in Guangzhou and Nanjing clashed with police to avoid mandatory quarantine measures that were being phased out.

Earlier this month, workers who helped Mr Xi enforce his flagship Covid-Zero policy protested over unpaid wages after the government abruptly ended three years of strict virus rules. 

More citizens are also openly questioning the credibility of government experts tasked with defending the abrupt U-turn on Covid-19 policy, such as Dr Liang Wannian, who posted a speech on the social media platform Weibo explaining why China opened up during the winter instead of the spring.

The top comment said he “shot the arrow first before drawing up the target”, while another declared: “Everything’s unprepared, but they made it out to be well thought out - how laughable.”

“Trust in the Chinese Communist Party will surely have been diminished, not so much by the fact of a U-turn, but by its consequences and because there was no Plan B,” said Mr Charles Parton, a former British diplomat based in China who is now a fellow at security think tank Royal United Services Institute.

“Claims of having the best form of governance wilt in the face of overwhelmed hospitals, lack of medicine and people feeling the effects of Covid.”

No ‘bigger incidents’

Mr Xi seems to be aware of the discord.

In an address on Wednesday ahead of Chinese New Year, he called the current outbreak “fierce”, while adding that the “dawn is just ahead”.

Earlier, he said it was “only natural” for 1.4 billion people to have divergent views, adding it was important to “build consensus through communication and consultation”. 

At the same time, the Communist Party is looking to prevent any new protests.

The Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday vowed to “resolutely defend national political security” over Chinese New Year and crack down on infiltration by “hostile forces”.

It said it would “guide the public to burn fireworks in a lawful and civic-minded manner”, and ensure family and wage disputes don’t turn into “bigger incidents”.

China’s top Internet watchdog also kickstarted a month-long campaign to counteract “rumours” about experiences with Covid-19 to “avoid misleading the public and causing social panic” during the holiday.

Regulators will strictly monitor homecoming stories that “spread anxiety around and exaggerate the dark side of society”. 

Economic focus

Mr Xi is seeking to jumpstart the economy with a surprise pivot on a number of signature policies, including crackdowns on the property and tech sectors.

China’s economy only clocked 3 per cent growth last year, way below the original target of around 5.5 per cent, and faces weak consumer confidence as the population declines for the first time in six decades.

“The immediate issue is to get the economy back on its sea legs again,” said Mr George Magnus, an economist and associate at the University of Oxford’s China Centre.

“The government has made kind of mistake after mistake after mistake in recent years, and it has a serious governance problem.”

As more people recover from Covid-19, and life returns to normal, pressure on the government will inevitably ease.

But the experiences of the past few months will have a lasting impact, according to assistant professor Hanzhang Liu at California-based Pitzer College, who specialises in Chinese politics.

“There are definitely some impacts on the psyche - some people will re-evaluate the government and the individual-state relationship,” assistant professor Liu said.

The pushback on fireworks bans, she said, offers “a small window into people’s thinking that they don’t have to always comply with the government policy if it’s not sensible”. BLOOMBERG