Given the historic popular anger observed in China in recent weeks, linked to the attempt at a “covid-zero” strategy that the Chinese government wants, Beijing has decided to let go, and has made it known through its media,’ he says. .
Until recently, Covid was described as a very dangerous disease, and no occasion was too good to criticize the management of the pandemic abroad. But as China seems to start its way out of “Covid zero”, suddenly everything seems less dire.
“Don’t be too scared, but also take some precautions” against the virus, launched in recent days to its readers the Beijing Youth Dailystate newspaper of the capital, through the publication of testimonies of convalescents.
Historic Tiananmen protests
In this country where the press is almost exclusively under the control of the Chinese state, the media rushed to follow the new official line, a week after the historic protests against health restrictions.
Popular discontent erupted after a fatal building fire in Xinjiang, during which 10 people lost their lives. On social networks, many Internet users had pointed out the anti-Covid measures, which would have slowed the arrival of the firefighters. For almost three years, Beijing has applied a strict health policy of repeated confinements and PCR tests that have become almost daily.
The demonstrations then gradually spread across the country, reaching a level not seen since the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. So much so that in a gesture unused, the Xi Jinping government had softened its position: many cities like Canton recently eased draconian anti-Covid rules.
For example, in certain areas, the obligation to go to a quarantine center with more than great comfort is over when one tests positive for Covid-19.
“More flexibility”
This change in doctrine is thus accompanied by an official message that aims to be more reassuring about the dangerousness of the virus, with Chinese President Xi Jinping himself acknowledging that the country can now afford “more flexibility.”
The Omicron variant “has nothing to do with the Delta variant from last year,” Guangzhou-based medicine professor Chong Yutian said in an article published by China Youth Daily.
“After infection with the Omicron variant, the vast majority of people will have no or very mild symptoms, and very few will have severe symptoms, it is already widely known,” he adds.
Friday, the village newspaper, an organ of the ruling Communist Party, cited several health experts who spoke in favor of the decisions of certain local governments to authorize people who tested positive to quarantine at home -and no longer in specialized centers, with comfort random-. This is a radical departure from the norm in force until then.
“This is a kind of official propaganda to prepare the population for greater flexibility and give the government the means to withdraw (from the zero covid policy),” Willy Lam, a Hong Kong-based expert on China politics, told AFP. Kong.
Blame the officials?
The media thus make it possible to prepare the ground, but also, if necessary, to shift the blame to local authorities, accused of excessive zeal in applying the restrictions.
The virus response agency warned in the People’s Daily on Saturday that local officials who have done too much will be “strictly held accountable.”
“Many local officials will be punished,” predicts Willy Lam.
A first example arrived on Saturday from Hunan province (center). A local security officer was expelled from the Communist Party and fired for assaulting a resident during a lockdown-related altercation. The companies in charge of processing the evidence are also pointed out, having been denounced in recent days by state media in several cases of infractions that they would have committed
These companies “will be the first to be culled by the government,” Chinese political blogger Jing Zhao said on Twitter, speaking under his pseudonym Michael Anti.
Enough to satisfy “some people’s desire to find scapegoats” while “abandoning PCR tests, in favor of less sensitive antigen tests, makes more sense with Omicron and may ease pressure on pandemic control.” “.
take the pressure off
For the Chinese government, turning around after three years of eager propaganda about the virus is not easy. But it already seems to be back on its feet, claiming to do it for the good of the population.
While several local authorities have announced that the elderly and those who rarely leave their homes will be exempted from large-scale PCR tests, state news agency Xinhua was quick to describe the move as proof that “the government is responding to demands. from the people”.
The Chinese Communist Party “admits that the zero Covid policy has endangered a fundamental pillar of its legitimacy: its promise to provide a minimum standard of living for citizens,” analysis for AFP Diana Fu, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
Easing health restrictions, he said, is part of the party’s traditional strategy of responding to protests “with carrots and sticks.”
“As the security apparatus has been put in place to suppress the protesters, local governments are also making concessions in terms of easing anti-Covid restrictions, to ease the pressure.”
Source: BFM TV
