China ushers in a zero-Covid holiday in the middle of life World news

China on Tuesday said it would take steps to “reduce” the impact of its draconian coronavirus lockdowns, amid unprecedented public protests against President Xi Jinping’s zero-covid-19 policy that has drawn strong support. from the UN, USA and other countries.

Anti-Covid protests in the last few days in several Chinese cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, which turned political with calls for Xi to resign showed signs of abatement with no reported demonstrations. as the police put up a fight with visits to the houses of the protestors in different places.

Seeking to address international concerns, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China is adjusting its zero-Covid policy based on changing conditions.

“We will continue to improve the maximum protection of science to people’s lives and health and reduce the impact of Covid on social economic development,” he said at a press conference.

China will manage Covid effectively and ensure stable economic activity, he said.

China maintains a strict zero-Covid policy under which local authorities have clamped down on even small outbreaks with extensive testing, quarantines and lockdowns.

China has moved quickly to quell demonstrations that erupted in major cities against the zero-Covid policy, deploying police at key protest sites and reining in online censorship.

Places where anti-government protests have taken place have been sealed off with barricades.

Also, many universities and colleges, including the famous Tsinghua University, where hundreds of students staged blank paper protests – an act that has become a symbol of protest against the Kannada ban – advised to go to their hometowns.

With memories of the Tiananmen Square student protests of 1989, which shook the ruling Communist regime, in mind, the government was careful to ensure that the campuses were emptied before they expanded.

Thousands of students demanding democracy and freedom in the communist country were killed during the Tiananmen protests.

The scale of the weekend’s spontaneous protests in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan and many other places took the Communist Party and the police by surprise.

Police killings of protesters and foreign journalists, including the arrest and detention of a BBC reporter in Shanghai, drew international condemnation.

The United Nations called on China to respect the right to peaceful protest. Spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office Jeremy Laurence told reporters that people should not be detained for simply protesting.

“We call on the authorities to respond to protests in accordance with international human rights laws and standards. No one should be detained arbitrarily for expressing their opinions peacefully,” he said.

White House National Security Council Director for Strategic Communications John Kirby said the US is closely watching developments in China.

“Our message to peaceful protesters around the world is the same and consistent: people should accept the right to assemble and to peacefully protest policies or laws or say they disagree with,” Kirby said in Washington.

“We are watching this very closely, as you would expect we will. And again, we continue to stand up and support the right of peaceful protest. And I think we will watch this very closely, and we will see where of things do. go,” he said.

In London, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during an interaction with business leaders and foreign policy experts said that in the face of criticism, China has “chosen to attack further, including by attacking a BBC journalist”.

“We know that China poses a systemic challenge to our values ​​and interests, a challenge that only grows as it moves toward even greater authoritarianism,” he said.

Asked for his response to international concerns and condemnation, Zhao said China is a law-based country.

“Human rights are protected by law. At the same time, all kinds of freedoms must be exercised under the rule of law,” said the spokesperson of the foreign ministry.

The official media, which blocked the coverage of the protests, also left hints of relaxation of the draconian measures.

“Protests took place in many places in China last weekend. With the relaxation of epidemic prevention and control measures, public sentiment will soon calm down. I can give an absolute prediction: China will not become chaotic or out of control,” tweeted Hu Xijin, former editor of the pro-government Global Times.

“Most Chinese people are no longer afraid of getting infected. China may emerge from the shadow of COVID-19 sooner than expected,” Hu wrote in a column in the Communist Party-run daily.

Several Chinese cities are further revising their rates of severe COVID testing, a report in the Global Times said.

Many Chinese cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Zhengzhou, have also optimized their anti-COVID-19 measures with some places allowing residents without social services to be freed from mass testing. It’s a move to take more targeted, science-based actions to prevent inflammation, the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, China continues to report a high number of COVID cases.

The National Health Commission on Tuesday said that 38,421 coronavirus cases were reported from across the country. The new cases include 5,375 infections recorded in Beijing where many apartment buildings are under lockdown.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which broke out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, has killed more than 6,631,000 people worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The world has also seen more than 641,655,000 cases of Covid-19.