Chinese Police crackdown on COVID protests
Chinese Police crackdown on COVID protests
Rare nationwide outburst of anger and frustration directed at Xi's zero-COVID policies
Police are out in force as authorities in major Chinese cities seek to end protests that erupted over the weekend against China’s zero-COVID lockdowns after an apartment fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang province killed 10 people.
Residents in Urumqi blamed zero-COVID barricades and blocked emergency exits for the deaths and took to the streets. Demonstrations followed in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Lanzhou, and Wuhan with some calling on President Xi Jinping to resign and others holding up blank sheets of paper in muted protest.
Social media images showed a man carrying flowers and speaking while walking back and forth on a cross walk on Urumqi street in Shanghai was arrested.
Students at “dozens of university campuses” protested over the weekend, BBC Asia correspondent Tessa Wong reported. A BBC camera man was arrested and beaten by police in Shanghai. Other journalists were prevented from covering events, according to reports in Western media and posts on Twitter.
Nationwide frustration
Public anger with Beijing’s harsh zero-COVID policies has been building for months. There were hopes President Xi would ease COVID restrictions after the 20th Communist Party Congress last month but that did not happen. Instead, infections spiked and controls tightened.
Last week, workers at the world’s largest iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhengzhou clashed with police in white protective suits with plastic riot shields, according to witnesses and videos on social media reported by The Associated Press and the BBC.
China foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Monday the government would deal decisively with the problem while following its “dynamic zero-COVID policy” and “making adjustments based on the reality on the ground”.
Some restrictions eased
Beijing city officials announced Monday they would no longer set up gates to block access to apartment buildings where COVID infections have been found, The Associated Press reported.
“Passages must remain clear for medical transportation, emergency escapes and rescues,” Wang Daguang, a city official in charge of epidemic control, said according to the official China News Service.
Officials in the southern city of Guangzhou, a center of new infections, announced some residents would no longer be required to undergo mass testing in order to conserve resources.
A challenge for Xi
China has not yet rolled out its own mRNA vaccine and has refused to import more effective Western vaccines, leaving millions unprotected from the virus which is continuing to mutate and spread.
“Over the last two years Mr. Xi backed himself into a corner by owning the zero-COVID policy,” Ho-fung Hung, a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University, told the BBC.
“The most rational way for him to handle the situation if protests continue to grow is to pressure local authorities to crack down hard while distancing himself.”
Economic reaction
China has been unable to return to normal economic activity as the rest of the world moves past the pandemic causing financial markets to anticipate slower global growth. The yuan closed lower on Monday at 7.2 to the US dollar.
"On top of growing concerns about weaker fuel demand in China due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, political uncertainty, caused by rare protests over the government's stringent COVID restrictions in Shanghai, prompted selling," Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at Nissan Securities told Reuters.
US Treasury prices rose and the yield curve inverted further with the 2-year yield trading down 100 basis points to 4.46 percent and the 10-year Treasury trading down 160 points to less than 3.7 percent.
Oil prices fell to near their lowest levels this year with Brent crude dropping 3.1 percent to trade at $80.97 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate sliding to $73.89 a barrel early Monday.
Shenzhou-15 launches tomorrow
The Shenzhou-15 crewed spaceship will be launched on Tuesday, November 29 at 11:08 p.m. Beijing time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, the China Manned Space Agency confirmed on Monday.
Three Shenzhou-15 taikonauts will complete construction of China’s new space station and begin the first stage of its application and development, agency officials said.
The Shenzhou-14 crew, who have been in orbit for 176 days, will return to earth after the handover.
FCC bans telecom equipment
The US Federal Communications Commission adopted rules on Friday banning the sale or import of new telecommunications equipment made by Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision and Dahua citing an “unacceptable” national security risk.
“The FCC is committed to protecting our national security by ensuring that untrustworthy communications equipment is not authorized for use within our borders, and we are continuing that work here,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.
China foreign ministry spokesman Zhao called it “yet another example of its abuse of the national security concept and state power to hobble Chinese companies.”
Pakistan PM invites Turkey to join China project
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has invited Turkey to join in development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an initiative Sharif has sought to revitalize in a visit with Xi in Beijing on November 2.
Sharif’s comments came during a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a visit to Ankara.
Sharif was elected prime minister of Pakistan in April after former PM Imran Khan was removed in a political crisis.