As much of the world returned to some kind of new normal in 2022, China remains the only country sticking to a strict \u201czero-COVID\u201d policy to control the spread of a global pandemic. While credited with saving lives, the policy slowed the economy, exacerbated supply-chain disruptions, cost millions of jobs, forced a large portion of Chinese residents into some form of lockdown for months, and is now, experts say, forcing Beijing\u2019s leadership to seek a way out of a problem they don\u2019t admit having.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the last weekend in November, protests against the zero-COVID policy erupted across China, the country where the virus was first identified in humans in late 2019 and where authorities in Wuhan, site of the initial outbreak, locked down millions of residents for most of the first four months of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
‘We want freedom!’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But three years into zero-COVID, people fed up with being locked down are in the streets chanting \u201cNo PCR test, we want freedom!\u201d \u201cEnd the lockdowns!\u201d \u201cStep down, Communist Party!\u201d Protests of this scale are rare because the Chinese Communist Party limits freedom of speech and association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under President Xi Jinping, whose increasingly authoritarian rule was extended for a historic third term in October, many citizens vent on social media, trying to stay ahead of censors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChina at one point was one of the world leaders in COVID response, and now it\u2019s the only country in the world that hasn\u2019t gotten back to a near normal,\u201d said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Washington\u2019s Georgetown University and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think part of the reason for that is literally the stubbornness of Chinese leadership, and particularly Xi Jinping,\u201d he told VOA Mandarin via phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Xi Chen, an associate professor of health policy and economics at the Yale School of Public Health, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview that public outrage and economic impact indicate that China needs to make \u201ca big adjustment in its public health policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Medical experts inside China are making similar arguments. Dr. Zhang Wenhong, who heads Shanghai\u2019s expert panel on COVID, said in a recent video circulating on the Chinese app WeChat that Beijing should consider relaxing its zero-COVID strategy soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLook at the U.S., their cases are several times higher than us, yet their people are living their lives to the fullest. It\u2019s time for us to adjust our policy, people should be able to relax and live a normal life, we as medical workers are the ones that should be prepared to face a rise in severe cases,\u201d he said in the video, which China\u2019s censors deleted soon after it appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Georgetown\u2019s Gostin said that through conversations with top epidemiologists in Hong Kong who advise Beijing on its COVID strategy, he believes that Xi understands that China needs to end its zero-COVID policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut China is running out of time,\u201d Gostin added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authorities commit to policy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Officially, Chinese leadership had shown little interest in ending zero-COVID before the end of last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On November 29, during the regular daily press briefing, a Reuters reporter in Beijing asked Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, “Given the widespread display of anger and frustration at the zero-COVID policy in recent days across China, is China thinking about ending it and if so, when?” His silence came after Xinhua issued commentaries on November 28, saying that while Beijing will do its best to accommodate the needs or desires of the people, it will stick to a \u201cdynamic zero-COVID policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom newborn babies to centenarians, we won\u2019t miss one infected case, we won\u2019t give up on one patient,\u201d one commentary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A day later, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who oversees China’s COVID containment efforts, urged further “optimization” of testing, treatment and quarantine policies, according to Reuters. The agency cited other officials saying that current restrictions, such as forcing people from their homes into quarantine centers if they test positive for the virus, would be implemented more flexibly to reflect local conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zero-COVID above all<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Xi has staked his political reputation on the fight against COVID, and that continues to mean mass testing, snap lockdowns and extensive quarantines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shanghai, China\u2019s most populous city and financial hub, experienced two months of strict lockdowns this spring, bringing business to a halt and severing key links in already disrupted regional and global supply chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Father says policy ‘indirectly killed’ his son<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the western city of Lanzhou, a 3-year-old boy died of carbon monoxide poisoning after COVID restrictions kept him from receiving medical care. His father told Reuters that the strict COVID-19 policies \u201cindirectly killed\u201d his son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In China\u2019s northern city of Hohhot, a 55-year-old woman committed suicide<\/a> by jumping from the 12th floor, where she had been quarantined for two weeks. The woman was reported to have suffered from anxiety and was on anti-depression medication, sparking discussion about the impact on mental health from strict zero-COVID lockdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last straw was a fire in Urumqi on November 24 that killed at least 10 people and injured nine in a building with stringent lockdown protocols that that may have prevented victims from fleeing the flames. In a news briefing after the fire, Li Wensheng, head of the Urumqi City Fire Rescue department, said \u201cthe residents lacked the ability to rescue themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To enter any public space, all residents of China rely on a color-coded smart phone app that tracks exposure to infection. In June, media reports surfaced that authorities in Zhengzhou, the capital of central Henan province, were using the codes to restrict the movement of people heading to protest at local banks that had frozen their deposits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>That draconian step saved thousands of lives, according to Chinese figures, and since then many Chinese have compared the 6.6 million deaths worldwide<\/a> to Beijing\u2019s official count of just 15,986 deaths. The U.S. alone has lost more than 1.08 million people. Beijing\u2019s policy emphasized \u201calways putting the people and their lives above everything else,\u201d according to a November 25 analysis in the official Xinhua news outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zhao, usually quick with an answer, looked at the papers on his podium for almost 20 seconds before asking the reporter to repeat his question. Zhao then paused for another 15 seconds before saying that China is following a \u201cdynamic zero-COVID policy\u201d and there is no public anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>According to estimates by the Japanese investment bank Nomura, about 412 million people in China were in some kind of lockdown as of November 23. That accounts for almost a third of China\u2019s total population and was up from 340 million the week before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>In November, with the number of cases increasing in Beijing, many residents in the country\u2019s capital feared a similar lockdown as residents of other cities blamed the zero-COVID policy for tragedies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>\u201cI think China\u2019s zero-COVID strategy has been disastrous for the country in so many different ways,\u201d said Gostin of Georgetown. \u201cMost importantly it’s really been a huge violation of human rights: not just the lockdowns, but also the intrusive surveillance that we’ve seen of the entire population on their mobile phones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n