German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Monday that he “understands” the “impatience” of people demonstrating in China against severe anti-Covid restrictions.
“I understand that people express their impatience and their complaints in the streets,” said the German head of state, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
“As a Democrat, I say that freedom of expression is an important public good,” Steinmeier said, adding that he “expects the Chinese authorities to respect the right to freedom of expression and demonstration.”
“We all remember our own fight against Covid-19 and the burden it represented” and therefore, the German president continued, “we can imagine how heavy the burden is for people in China, where the measures are much stricter.” . for much longer and have become even stronger.
China relaxed some epidemic prevention measures today, after demonstrations against the frequent periods of confinement and the massive tests imposed in several cities in the country, but guaranteed that the ‘covid zero’ strategy “will culminate successfully”.
Under the “leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and (with) the support of the Chinese people, our fight against Covid-19 will be successful,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, Zhao, said in response. to the wave of protests that have taken place in recent days.
Over the weekend, hundreds of groups of Beijing residents left their condominiums, effectively breaking China’s existing epidemic prevention measures, as protests spread in several Chinese cities against the imposition of lockdown measures.
In some cases, protesters chanted against Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China.
Under the ‘zero cases’ policy of Covid-19, China imposes the lockdown of entire neighborhoods or cities, the constant conduct of mass tests and the isolation of all positive cases and their direct contacts in designated facilities, often in degrading conditions. .
Source: TSF
