Chinese leader Xi Jinping broke his silence after weeks of protests in Shanghai, where residents are locked in their homes and forcefully relocated due to the city’s COVID-19 lockdown, to say that China would continue to stifle protests and that lockdowns were part of the Chinese Communist Party’s ideology.
Xi Jinping vowed 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” at a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, per NDTV.
Xi made the remarks as part of a public announcement from the Communist Party committee that said there would be no end to the lockdown, nor the country’s zero-COVID policy, and declared the policies to be as scientifically driven as they are ideologically driven.
“Our prevention and control strategy is determined by the party’s nature and mission, our policies can stand the test of history, our measures are scientific and effective,” Politburo Standing Committee said according to state run news.
The committee claimed, “We have won the battle to defend Wuhan, and we will certainly be able to win the battle to defend Shanghai.”
In context, that means citizens of Shanghai will continue to live under some of the most restrictive lockdown measures conceived until COVID cases have fallen to levels considered acceptable by the Chinese government and the Communist Party.
The current lockdown in Shanghai – a city of 26 million – was provoked by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which is characterized by generally mild symptoms and low hospitalizations.
Still, the Chinese government tested people as old as 100 and forcibly relocated them to quarantine camps after they tested positive.
“One man told us his 90-year-old sister had died, sharing a room with five others,” the BBC reported. “He has contacted us again and told us all the others in her room have since died.”
Shanghai residents have been given indications that the lockdown may soon end in the form of a massive cleaning and disinfecting campaign, however, other parts of China including Beijing may be headed toward Shanghai and Wuhan-style lockdowns.
