XI'S REPUTATION PLUMMETS WITH HIS COVID U-TURN

China's Zero Covid lockdown strategy merely delayed the inevitable spread of the virus once it allowed itself to open up.

- JOHN DOBSON

Was it the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests that caused the sudden change of policy? Throughout the whole of last year, demonstrations against the strict Covid-19 policy made things difficult for President Xi Jinping's administration as the level of anger and frustration among the Chinese people grew. Thousands of students took to the streets and university campuses of major cities from Shanghai to Beijing, Guangzhou to Chengdu, demanding an end to the CCP's Zero Covid policy. As the demonstrations built, so they hurt Xi's efforts to highlight China's successes at a time when he had just taken over as the country's leader for the third time.

China's strict Covid limitations became the target of some of the fiercest protests the country had ever seen, generating a number of memes, slogans and catchphrases which went viral in the process. Videos on social media showed crowds in Urumqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang region, chanting the slogans "Communist Party step down" and "Down with Xi Jinping", all because of a deadly fire in a Covid quarantine building that unleashed huge public outrage. Such large-scale protests are rare in China, especially in Xinjiang, given the extensive blanket of high-tech surveillance measures the authorities have imposed on the region to quell what the government sees as separatist or extremist tendencies.

Following the two-month lockdown of Shanghai’s 25 million residents early last year, which sparked outrage and demonstrations, Covid-19 restrictions became more nuanced and focused. However, in late October, China began to experience its first winter with the highly contagious Omicron variant and the endeavour became hampered by increased infections. Images on social media appeared of guards dragging people out of their homes after they refused to go. Viral footage from Hangzhou showed a man fighting off officials.