On Sunday, a Chengdu mother said in a tearful video monologue that she lost her critically ill son after he was forcefully quarantined for a week and missed the crucial time window to treat his heart disease. FCHNA/FeatureChina/APĬhinese metropolis of Chengdu locks down 21 million residents Residents line up for Covid-19 tests in Chengdu city in southwest China's Sichuan province on Tuesday. Neusoft Corporation, the Chinese company providing the software, blamed the crashes on “network malfunction” in a statement released over the weekend. Photos circulating on social media show health workers raising their arms and holding mobile phones up in the air – in a futile attempt to receive better signals. The city’s digital system used to register Covid tests has crash repeatedly due to the sudden surge in entries, resulting in long lines at testing sites. On Sunday, authorities extended the lockdown for most of the city and ordered more mass testing from Monday to Wednesday. In southwestern China, the mega city of Chengdu placed its 21 million residents under lockdown on Thursday. The sweeping lockdowns – sometimes in response to just a handful of cases – have hit several metropolises home to more than 10 million people as well as major industry hubs. “In the coming month and a half, we’re going to see more cities under lockdown.” “This provides a strong incentive for them to undertake heavy-handed, extreme preemptive measures,” Huang said. The main lesson they learned from Shanghai, Huang said, is to act more decisively and immediately when facing even the smallest of potential outbreaks.įor local officials, doubling down on zero-Covid is a way to toe the Party line, demonstrate their loyalty to Xi, and prevent any large-scale outbreak that could jeopardize their career weeks before the Party congress. Officials across the country have taken note. In response, Xi issued a strong warning against critics, vowing to “resolutely fight against any words and acts that distort, doubt or deny” his zero-Covid policy. The ruling Communist Party has used the zero-Covid strategy to argue that its political model is superior to Western democracies, and Xi has thrown his weight behind the policy.Įarlier this year, a painful two-month lockdown in Shanghai sparked a public backlash and crippled the economy, leading some to question the zero-tolerance approach. Residents line up for Covid-19 screening in Chengdu city in southwest China's Sichuan province on September 2. “The Party wants to make sure nothing untoward, such as a major outbreak, could potentially threaten social stability, shadow the leadership transition process – and not to mention tarnish Xi’s personal leadership credibility,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. And a severe outbreak risks undermining that triumphant image, experts say. The highly choreographed affair is meant to be a moment of celebration and vindication of the achievements of the Party – and of Xi personally over his decade in power. Xi, a staunch advocate for the country’s uncompromising zero-Covid strategy, is poised to be anointed as the country’s top leader for another five years at the 20th Party Congress, scheduled to start on October 16. Health officials have cited the relatively low elderly vaccination rate and inadequate rural healthcare as hurdles to relaxing restrictions, but Chinese public health experts say political factors have played an outsized role, too. The sweeping restrictions that upend lives and businesses stand in stark contrast with the return to normal life in much of the world, where societies have mostly pivoted to living with the virus.īut China insists that zero-Covid is saving lives. Experts say more cities are likely to be added in the coming weeks. According to Chinese financial magazine Caixin, 33 cities are currently under partial or full lockdowns. Many of the restrictions are still in place. They include 15 provincial capitals and Tianjin, a provincial-level municipality. Since August 20, at least 74 cities with a combined population of 313 million have imposed lockdowns that cover entire cities, districts or multiple neighborhoods, according to CNN’s calculations. More than 70 Chinese cities have been placed under full or partial Covid lockdowns since late August, impacting more than 300 million people, as local authorities rush to stamp out infections at all cost in the final countdown to leader Xi Jinping’s expected third term.
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