Xi Jinpings no tolerance 'Zero-Covid' policy proves intolerable to citizens

BEIJING: While Chinese President Xi Jinpings authoritarian regime continues to pull out all stops to paint a rosy picture of conditions at home with the deployment of a successful strategy to curb Covid-19 spread and surges, reports reveal that the reality within the country is starkly different.

Reports have been gathered which show the steep rise in public protests this year in China, accounting for more than 430 of them, while the authorities' have taken rather oppressive steps to intervene and disperse of the crowds. Despite the government's attempts to rule the country with an iron-fist, people have taken to streets to display their dissatisfaction emerging from the zero-tolerance Covid policy that Xi's regime has enforced across the country.

The implementation of extended Covid lockdowns in areas where cases of the virus appear, or the precautionary measures put in place in densely populated areas has resulted in the lives of citizens being brought to a halt. People have been driven to the point of protest owing to a lack of pay-outs and unpaid worker wages, unavailability of daily necessities and the apparent apathy of the government to the plight of its citizens.

Discontent amongst the public against the tyrannical measures taken 'for the good of the people' has been brewing for a long time, and has resulted in demonstrations across multiple major provinces in the country, including the cities of Shanghai, Shandong, Beijing, Anhui and Hong Kong. The administration's quick response to squash these anti-establishment movements have furthered the cycle of disarray and dissent in the nation.

Beijing's prestigious Peking University was witness to an anger-fuelled demonstration by students over the implementation of the most recent set of pandemic restrictions on campus. Students were also irked by the administration erecting a metal wall between the faculty and student quarters, and the blatantly different set of rules that were put in place for the two groups. A student was reported to have said that everyone's normal lives had been totally destroyed by the restrictions. The protests at the university were addressed by students as being reminiscent of the May Fourth Movement of mass protests by students in 1919.

Beijing's political unrest is also marked by the numerous incidents of forced 'disappearances' in the wake of protests peppered across the capital. A petitioner hailing from Zhengzhou was beaten at the Xiaohongmen Police Station in Chaoyang, Beijing earlier in the month of July; another human rights defender was intercepted before she boarded a train at Fengtai, Beijing by Suzhou government officials later in the month. Reports have also been gathered of illegal detention of citizens, as that of a businessman in a hotel in Tianjin by city officials, while a petitioner was held in incommunicado detention by the police in an unknown location following him being taken to the station.

The commercial heart of the country has seen its own share of public demonstrations and protests on a large scale. The imposition of lockdowns shook the foundations of uncountable businesses, with small-scale businesses coming to a halt entirely and big brands awaiting further instructions to resume operations. While supply chains worldwide were broken down largely destroying the global trade mechanism, urban unemployment rates at home increased to an all-time high of 6.1 per cent in April 2022. These hardships borne by the people were manifested in the form of various public protests against unfair measures being taken by the government. IANS

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