Pressure on China’s Covid-19 strategy

Three days of sporadic public protests across cities in China over the government’s zero-tolerance Covid-19 policy are reverberating around the country and the world. This level of public dissent has not been seen since the pro-democracy protests of 1989. The patience of many ordinary Chinese citizens, some under lockdown for 100 days or more, is wearing thin visibly. They are weary. The trigger for the protests was a fire in an apartment complex in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, which took the lives of 10 people. Tough and frequent lockdown measures in place in most cities have been blamed for slowing down rescue efforts in Urumqi. While China has seen public protests, and a measure of violence before, the focus of anger in Shanghai on Saturday, for instance, was directed not just at lockdown measures, but at the leadership of President Xi Jinping himself. That some protesters in Beijing chose to converge in a public spot near the Liangma River, which is close to foreign embassies, suggests they want to give their frustration a wider airing. Many also appeared unconcerned about being captured on video – potentially putting their personal safety at risk.

But the government is clearly between a rock and a hard place. While it has been three years since the pandemic first struck globally, China is currently in the midst of its worst Covid-19 outbreak, with 40,000 cases daily and infections in key cities and economic hubs such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing. The country could once boast of its ability to keep the virus at bay through its use of lockdowns, mass testing and home-developed vaccine.