Protests in China over strict zero Covid policies erupted across the country after a deadly apartment fire. Citizens say Covid protocols prevented residents from escaping and receiving assistance. Vigils are happening not only across China but across the U.S. as people gather and mourn in solidarity.
Sullivan Barthel has the story.
Large-scale protests have broken out in cities across China following an apartment fire last Friday which killed ten people and injured another nine. Chinese commentators shared footage and reports of the fire in Urumqi, Xianjiang on social media, infuriating citizens who said that Covid restrictions had impacted the rescue and stopped residents from escaping the building.
Protesters in Shanghai and Urumqi have called for the government to lift lockdowns and restrictions on the press, and have even called for China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to step down. These protests are the latest flare-up of widespread frustration about the country’s stringent zero-Covid measures.
Jonathan Aronson, professor of communication at USC Annenberg and international relations at USC Dornsife, said that China’s zero-tolerance Covid policies were a political and economic decision.
JONATHAN ARONSON: It was incredibly successful on one level, which is that Chinese deaths from Covid have been much, much lower than anywhere else of similar size and scale. It has been less successful in that people are fed up. They do get the news that around the world there have been much less restrictive policies.
The protests represent the biggest challenge to the government’s power since Xi Jinping took office a decade ago. Outbursts like these have not been seen in China since the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, which were crushed by the Chinese army.
Aronson says that although it’s rare for Chinese citizens to question their president, our digital world makes it easier to do so.
ARONSON: In an age of the Internet, it’s more frequent. It’s always been okay to criticize at the local level. Well, what happens is when you get up to the Politburo level, when you get up to the ruler’s sitting in Beijing and particularly to Xi, that’s what’s new and that’s what’s not been tolerated before.
So far, protestors have been met with tear gas, and Chinese social media sites have been scrubbed of any anti-government messaging. On Sunday afternoon, a demonstration at Tsinghua University in Beijing drew a crowd of hundreds of students. Protesters noted that the gathering was not immediately shut down by police.
Although Aronson thinks that Covid restrictions in China may ease over time, he is less optimistic that the government will change their policy because of protests.
ARONSON: Over time they will recalculate. Over time, there will be some relaxation. I do not expect the Chinese government to say, “Oh, we’ve suddenly seen the light, we are now going to make it easier because you’ve asked us to.”
The Chinese government has blamed “forces with ulterior motives” for connecting the Xinjiang fire to Covid protocols. The government has said that it is reluctant to ease restrictions in the interest of stopping public transmission. China has a very low vaccination rate, as it has refused to offer any mRNA vaccines developed by Western countries.
For Annenberg News, I’m Sullivan Barthel.