China's Zero-Covid Policy Key To Xi's Legacy As He Eyes Third Term

For many in China, years of gruelling lockdowns and privacy invasions aimed at extinguishing Covid have caused misery.

For many in China, years of stressful lockdowns and privacy violations aimed at stamping out Covid have caused misery.

For President Xi Jinping, curbing the virus is a victory.

His intolerant approach to Covid has become synonymous with efforts to consolidate his power over China and its ruling Communist Party.

The endgame begins on October 16, when thousands of Party delegates gather in Beijing for a major Party Congress expected to secure a third historic period.

“Xi’s Legacy and the Legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party Linked to the Success of the Zero Covid Campaign,” Diana Fu,

An expert on Chinese domestic politics at the Brookings Institution think tank told AFP.

While the rest of the world has largely moved to live with Covid, Xi has insisted on strict policies aimed at stamping out the virus.

This approach has crippled growth in the world's second-largest economy, which was already struggling with debt.

The overburdened real estate sector and the high unemployment rate among young people.

But Xi revolted in his wake, declaring China's most "economic and efficient" path to zero Covid, while maintaining policies that have deepened state control over the lives of 1.4 billion people.

Tests and QR codes

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Grabbing campaign shingles continues to be sudden shutdowns - sometimes confining tens of millions of people to their homes for weeks or months.

In one recent lockdown, some residents in the megacity Chengdu were not allowed outside even when an earthquake shook their apartment buildings.

And in the economic hub of Shanghai, a months-long shutdown has led to rare scenes of protests from middle-class and wealthy Chinese people.

Public frustration has also prompted the bypass of internet censorship in China and into social media.

In one of the most prominent cases,

A bus crash in rural Guizhou province that killed 27 people on their way to a COVID-19 quarantine facility has sparked criticism online.

Public restrictions that undermine privacy and limit movement have also caused anger and resentment.

Residents of many cities must test negative for the coronavirus every few days to get to public places.

They then use their smartphone to scan QR codes at the entrances to offices, malls and restaurants and bring up their latest test results.

A green icon indicates they can enter for free, while a red or amber color indicates they may have tested positive or passed close to someone who has it.

This could lead to anything from a few days of isolation at home to weeks in a quarantine facility.

The system also tracks people's movements, leaving it vulnerable to abuse, such as when authorities were accused of thwarting anti-corruption protests this year by turning participants' symbols red.

before the epidemic,

Chinese citizens were already under heavy surveillance.

Steve Tsang, director of China's SOAS Institute at University College London, said the COVID monitoring device is "in keeping with the model of social control" that Xi has led.

'no choice'

China argues zero-

Covid puts human life above material concerns and has helped avert the public health crises other countries have experienced.

Officials have also expressed concerns that the virus could overwhelm China's patchy health care system if the spread is allowed unchecked, especially in aging rural communities.

So far, China has reported just over 5,

000 deaths from the Covid virus compared to more than 1 million deaths in the United States.

But while a milder alternative to the Omicron virus has reduced the risk of reopening in many countries, the restrictions imposed by China continue to incur heavy economic and social costs.

“They have to give up Zero Covid eventually,” Jin Dongyan said,

He is a professor at the University of Hong Kong's School of Biomedical Sciences, calling it "wrong and inconsistent with all scientific evidence".

The policy's initial success created a sense of gridlock among policymakers, according to Allen Wu, a professor at Nanjing University School of Medicine who has advised the World Health Organization.

"There is a mentality that we did a great job in 2020 and 2021," he told AFP.

If we (now) do nothing and a lot of people are injured, it basically means everything I've accomplished."

Many in China are speaking favorably about Zero Covid.

Fu of the Brookings Institution said government propaganda had convinced most people that cases should be reduced "at any human and economic cost".

"A large number of Chinese citizens continue to support the strict measures despite the obvious personal suffering," she said.

Even those at the extreme end of politics have no choice but to submit.

Airlines engineer Ian Jiang has spent 200 days in isolated hotels throughout the pandemic, and China continues to quarantine overseas arrivals for up to two weeks.

Jiang, 38, described the procedures as "extremely uncomfortable for my personal life".

"But this is the policy of the Chinese government," Jiang said. "You have no choice."

It is unlikely that there will be much public opposition when Xi receives the cajoling of party delegates to Congress this month.

BY
ProBuzzFeed