In late June, the Chinese government announced a very extensive shortening of the era of mandatory quarantine in centralized services for other people entering China. Travelers would only have to stay on those services for a week or two. The Chinese government, however, has low insistence that it continues to maintain the course of its Zero COVID policy.
The government’s announcement came shortly after provocative statements of anxiety from beijing’s most sensible Chinese Communist Party official were posted online. Municipal Committee, quoting him as saying that Beijing would comply with Zero COVID measures “for the next five years. “
The reaction from social media has been swift and furious. Some users have expressed exasperation at having to undergo strict measures for part of a decade; others have publicly announced their goal of reconsidering their long-term commitment to living in Beijing. Weibo, the popular microblogging site in China, temporarily banned the use of the hashtag “for the next five years,” while the Beijing Daily got rid of the reference, displaying an “editing error. “
Beijing Daily Chairman Zhao Qingyun tried to temporarily explain the main points of the incident on Weibo and asked his followers to rate his comments:
The word “for the next five years” did not appear in Secretary Cai’s comments and was mistakenly added by the journalist. It would be difficult to understand how this happened, but the journalist rushed to publish the article as temporarily as possible using a smart. template and only briefly reviewing the main topics of Secretary Cai’s speech. The style contained the repetitive language “for the next five years,” and that word was among the formulations about maintaining pandemic control measures. The journalist transparently had no transparency ideas
The article remained online without the words “for the next five years”:
The Thirteenth CPC Municipal Congress in Beijing opened this morning. Comrade Cai Qi reported that Beijing will continue to maintain control measures of the 0 covid pandemic [for the next five years] and resolutely protect itself from external infections and internal transmission. The city will carry out and Beijing’s “four joint responsibilities” (local, painting unit, organizational and individual), infection prevention mechanisms and the emergency reaction formula of the “first four” (early detection, reporting, isolation and treatment). Beijing will put in place a comprehensive pandemic controls that are scientific, precise and dynamic.
However, the Beijing Daily has swept away those considerations with such indifference. For many in China, reading the above passage with or without the word “for the next five years” may not make much of a difference. Leaving aside the fact that Secretary Cai said “for another five years” or not, his comments caused public consternation. Instead of explaining the controversy by focusing on the journalist’s alleged mistake, Zhao, as the leading voice of Beijing’s media, wondered why the public was so sensitive to Cai’s comments. First of all.
The other Chinese are right to get involved in the future. As “Living with the Virus” is accepted globally, the Chinese government continues its irrational and inhumane Zero COVID policy. Unable to leave their homes and without food, the citizens of the skyscrapers Can be heard banging pots from their windows and shouting ominously, “Let us out!”
While there has been fake news, videos of other people jumping from skyscrapers have appeared on social media. a quarantine facility. Almost in fact, there are other people who have been physically weakened or even died because they may simply not leave their homes.
There are tragic stories of boys. A mom went around the space to ask for a fever medicine for her son with a temperature of 40 degrees. No one opened the door for him. A public protection officer in protective gear captured a dog in a huge net and violently drove the barking animal into a dog cage to send it. A guy who is probably the owner desperately chased the officer, only to be thrown to the ground.
Some citizens remembered photographs of the Cultural Revolution. Then the “Red Guards” came into force to destroy the “old four” (old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits). Attacking perceived “counterrevolutionary” elements, the Red Guards also destroyed China’s valuable cultural heritage. In this regard, Chinese netizens have begun to refer to public security officials dressed in white protective clothing as “white guards. “
Since they don’t have to provide police identification, it’s unclear who is dressed to take other people into quarantine. Certainly, it takes many other people to implement those controls and, if necessary, use force. However, it is quite conceivable that other people who are not regularly hired or who are on leave would pose as public servants and use the pretext of controlling the pandemic to engage in acts of violence against others.
Many citizens are painfully asking, “What have we done wrong? Why are we being treated like criminals? In Shanghai, the word ‘1. 4 billion times 1’ is now used. One billion Chinese opposed a policy, because it was the “correct” policy of one guy, “emperor” Xi Jinping, so everyone sticks to it.
The following comment also gave the impression on the Internet: “While daily freedoms were suppressed in the COVID-19 call in New York and Tokyo, it was not at the same point as China. Those with wealth will actually leave China. Who can stay in such a country?
Another revealing video was widely circulated on social media in Shanghai a month after it was closed. The video shows another public protection officer dressed in white protective clothing pressuring a circle of family members to leave their home to be transported to a government quarantine facility. . The official yells at the circle of relatives: “If you don’t obey the city’s orders, your punishment will be your circle of relatives for 3 generations! A nearby guy promptly replies: “That’s good. Anyway, we are the last generation.
The hashtag #LastGeneration began to circulate widely temporarily. This could constitute the determination of many other young people not to have or raise children in China.
Many young Chinese have been influenced by official media narratives that COVID-19 is an American conspiracy and that China is triumphing globally through its COVID-19 policies. Why did a single public security official feel emboldened to make threats against other people and their descendants??
Lockdown in modern, cosmopolitan cities like Shanghai, a policy in which citizens have no voice and puts them in danger of starving to death, has even led to comments on social media such as “Regardless, I perceive how other people in Uyghur and Hong Kong Sensation. “The use of authoritarian measures like that, one after another, may, after all, not take place in a loose country.
Young Chinese are also concerned about the serious professional scenario in which they are located. Stores are definitive and businesses go bankrupt one after another. As a result of the government’s policy of final intensive schools alone, around 10 million people have lost their jobs. Large-scale restructuring is also taking a position in the IT industry and other sectors, leading to the loss of tasks. China’s National Bureau of Statistics estimates that the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in urban spaces has reached 18. 2 percent, up 2. 2 percent. And another 10. 8 million academics are expected to graduate this fall and join the workforce.
It would be simple to say that COVID-19 restrictions are still in place. However, it is China’s formula of social control, overburdened through COVID-19, that remains in place. The measures are not only aimed at verifying the physical prestige of residents, however, at extending their surveillance. No matter where you are or what you do, they follow you. If there is any doubt about your actions, you will be denied access to the sites; you might even see your bank account frozen.
Many young Chinese are considering going because they don’t want to marry or raise children in a country like China, as they see lately. Among those other people, a new neologism is making its way to circumvent state censorship. Runxue (潤学) acquired here the meaning of “run-ology” online. In its pinyin romanization, the first character of this compound, meaning “wet” or “wet,” resembles the English word “run. “Meaning the character of moment “learn” in Chinese, the term now refers to emigration: “techniques to flee China”.
This new form of wisdom is temporarily shared among web users while Zero COVID remains in position in an “abnormal” China.
(Originally published in Japanese on July 12, 2022) each apartment build has its own express QR code, which creates confusion for residents. © Sung Ho, Kyōdō. )