Beijing: China’s President Xi Jinping delivered his harshest warning yet to anyone who questions the country’s zero-Covid policy.
The action comes after many Shanghai residents took to social media in the last five weeks to ask for help and express their outrage over acute food shortages and a lack of access to medical treatment, according to CNN.
The ruling Communist Party’s elite Politburo Standing Committee committed on Thursday, chaired by Xi Jinping, to “unswervingly adhere to the general policy of ‘dynamic zero-Covid,’ and resolutely fight against any words and acts that distort, doubt or deny our country’s epidemic prevention policies.”
This is the first time Xi, who delivered an “important speech” at the meeting, has made public remarks regarding China’s fight against Covid since the public outcry over the brutal lockdown in Shanghai.
“Our prevention and control strategy is determined by the party’s nature and mission, our policies can stand the test of history, and our measures are scientific and effective,” the seven-member committee said, according to government news agency Xinhua.
“We have won the battle to defend Wuhan, and we will certainly be able to win the battle to defend Shanghai,” it said. However, the frequent and harsh lockdowns are fueling public anger and wreaking havoc on the Chinese economy.
Residents in Shanghai demonstrated from their windows, banging pots and pans and shouting in fury; others clashed with police and health officials in the streets, an unusual sight in a country where dissent is frequently stifled.
The new announcement from the country’s senior authorities, however, has made it obvious that the Chinese government is doubling down on its approach of relying on fast lockdowns, mass testing, and quarantine to eliminate the highly transmissible Omicron form for the foreseeable future, according to CNN.
Xi has personally endorsed China’s zero-Covid strategy, with state media frequently saying that he has “personally directed and made arrangements” for the country’s fight against the pandemic.
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