I can't read Chinese and am only seeing things peep out on twitter last night and this morning
Is any official stance changing?
Is this supposedely in response to the protests? Those didn't seem for lack of a better word.....real. Or at least natively organic.
Yes and no.
Yes in the sense that, even before the libs start holding up a piece of paper and nut themselves for being so edgy, the Party released an “optimization” of their 9th version of their dynamic Zero-Covid policy. Changes implemented on a national level included, for example, reducing the length of lockdown from 7 to 5 days, reducing the unit of each lockdown from a community to a single building/elevator access, no longer quarantining the close contacts of close contacts (sic) of those who test positive, and generally asking that lockdowns must “happen swiftly AND end swiftly.” (Edit: also they banned citywide lockdowns, or at least took the power to do so away from the local govs)
No in the sense that different places are taking different approaches. What Guangzhou is doing is basically (1) no longer implementing lockdowns when there are only suspected positives (nowadays most Covid tests are done in the so-called “ten samples mixed in one tube” way to save costs, and most places will implement a temporary lockdown whenever someone’s test group has a positive); (2) no longer using constant Covid testing for everyone to see who can move about, but instead using your phone’s QR code (which you need to scan still to go to places) to do contact tracing. (3) allowing asymptommatic positives and close contacts to quarantine at home rather than at a makeshift hospital. Most other cities haven’t followed suite so far.*
I think the gov is trying to experiment with easier zero-Covid measures here — there are so many different opinions in China medically, politically, and socially about how they should approach omicron now that it spreads so much more easily but causes fewer severe cases on an individual basis. So in classic CPC fashion, “theory — praxis — theory,” they probably decided to test it out somehow.
This is NOT an “opening up.” And again long before the libs started doing their little dances the Party decided to explore ways of easing, mostly because omicron is a different beast — which means dynamic Zero-Covid, still the official policy, has to be approched differently.
- add: one thing I’ve seen places start to do is to exempt you from daily/regular Covid tests if you stay home and don’t go anywhere, mostly designed for students taking classes online, elderlies who don’t move above much, people telecommuting, toddlers, and likedminded folks doing day-long paradox megacampaigns
Reducing lockdowns to potentially just individual buildings makes sense. Much less logistical issues.
I wouldn't say it's getting stricter per se. I think more and more places are seeing large-scale covid measures for the first time and/or longer than ever before simply cuz omicron spreads more easily. as such there's also been exponentially more chances of local incompetency absolutely screwing over people's lives (no doubt the local cadres etc are facing an immense amount of pressure, but there's a whole conversation to be had how the Party's local organizations have become a lot more bureaucratic and dogmatic these days, simply carrying out orders without even an attempt of communication, mobilization, or grounded flexibility; and of course the more pressure/anger the local cadres face the more comfortable they are in resorting to blunt dirigism and furthering the downward spiral)
One hand: "the totalitarian chinese government is locking people inside buildings and not giving their people freedom!"
The other hand: after decades of outsourcing all production to China "China has to keep their people healthy and working for dirt cheap so I can get my treats"
Incoming :parenti:
"Ebul gommulists are oppressing their people with their barbaric zero covid policy. The seeseepee must be destroyed"
"Ebul gommulists are openly killing off their elderly and trying to spread covid to America by lifting zero covid policy. The seeseepee must be destroyed"
Short answer: yes
Long answer: they’ll be pivoting away slowly for the next few months.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63805188.amp
I follow expat communities and they’ve said young people in China aren’t scared of the virus anymore. Makes sense since the protests have skewed young.
They’ve also started quantitative easing.
https://www.scmp.com/economy/economic-indicators/article/3201006/china-cuts-banks-reserve-requirement-ratio-boost-economy-releasing-us70-billion
Anyone who follows China knew zero Covid would not be permanent. Their reopening will be more orderly than the rest of the world though.
Weibo is such a cesspool of cannibalistic liberalism I wouldn’t be surprised if one can finding something like this verbatim.
The "anti-government" aspect of the protests was most likely just a few people trying to hijack them and getting promoted by Western media. But there are people upset about the lockdowns, because they were serious measures that disrupted people's lives. China always intended them to be temporary measures and does not view "Zero COVID in One Country" as a viable long term strategy.
Hopefully, if the number of deaths in the western world spike this winter, as it's likely to do, they'll reconsider. 🤞
They won’t. Xi and top officials are starting to travel overseas, their public sees the World Cup happening, and Sun Chunlan has said Omicron is less pathogenic.
Zero covid has always been unsustainable in the long term. They’re gearing up for a mass vaccination drive of the elderly this December. China’s response to covid has always been successful.
Lmao, at long term. It's been 3 years. And the western world is vaxxing people and then throwing them into the long covid/excess morbidity woodchipper. Even if the western left pulls their head out of their ass and makes a difference on the west's covid strategy in the next few years, the amount of damage that will be done will likely be catastrophic to humanity. Frankly, China's zero covid is our last hope.
Last hope at what? Eliminating Covid? Even with China’s Covid measures they’ve been struggling to contain it. Early on all top disease experts have said Covid will become endemic. This isn’t China throwing up their hands and giving up. They know this disease is one of the most infectious ever and they’re taking intelligent, slow steps to live with it.
There's no living with a virus that kills humanity's ability to maintain herd immunity.
I’m confused. What do you think the zero Covid policy is?
My understanding is that it’s an attempt to keep cases to a minimum while a vaccine we would consider “real” is developed, rather than keeping cases to an absolute minimum indefinitely with no long term strategy.
My country is seeing way less infections and deaths this year than the last year at the same time. It could still jump up but it doesn't seem like it for now.
Doesn't seem to be readily available, no. However all the people I know that work in hospitals aren't reporting more hospitalizations than usual, and the official death statistics aren't nearly as bad as last year. Also people around me aren't getting it nearly as often, all my colleagues haven't had it in months.
Also all the surrounding countries seem to have similar data.
The really bad spike last year was in January so we're not in the clear yet but for now this year does seem way less severe.
I watch wastewater in the US and our numbers have started to rise.😔 That combined with RSV, the Flu, and a significant chunk of the population being immunocompromised... it's likely gonna be a rough winter.
They still doing dynamic covid, but not the strict one like before.
