[The Epoch Times, April 9, 2022](The Epoch Times reporter Lin Yan comprehensive report) The Wall Street Journal on Friday (April 8) quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Xi Jinping had hoped to relax the reset policy, but in Shanghai Strict lockdowns resumed after a surge in confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Two years after relying on broad, tough lockdowns to contain the COVID-19 virus that originated in Wuhan, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has tried something new in Shanghai, the report said.
Citing sources close to government policymakers, the report said Xi gave Shanghai leeway to address the local outbreak, given the economic damage and public anger brought about by the zero-clearing policy. The idea is for Shanghai to lock down only the affected communities. If successful, this approach could provide a template for coexistence with viruses for years to come.
Before the latest outbreak, Xi and other top officials viewed Shanghai as a model for China’s long-term goal of coexisting with the virus, the person said.
Shanghai, run by close allies of Xi Jinping, has never had a serious outbreak.
But when the number of confirmed cases in China’s most populous city surged nearly five-fold in the past week, Beijing decided to return to a draconian zero policy.
In unpublished comments to the Politburo Standing Committee, Mr. Xi made clear that China cannot back down from its strict zero-zero policy, even if it means slower economic growth, according to a person close to policymakers.
“Nothing is more important than clearing the virus,” Xi told top leaders in late March, according to a person briefed on the leader’s speech, Huari reported.
A few days later, Shanghai launched a two-phase lockdown. According to a summary seen by The Wall Street Journal, Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on a conference call with experts at the time that Shanghai had not acted decisively enough in the recent outbreak and had missed an opportunity to contain it.
The secretary general of Shanghai said on March 31 that local officials did not know enough about the Omicron virus variant to be fully prepared.
The CCP’s zero-clearing policy is to block when a case is found, and then, regardless of social chaos and tension, conduct mass testing and isolation for every positive case.
In Shanghai, if a single case was found, the entire building or street was blocked. After re-emphasizing the zero-clearing policy, the authorities decided to stagger the blockade of the giant city, blocking half of the city first, and then changing the other half.
Now they’re ready to lock down the entire city indefinitely, while sending 38,000 medical workers and 2,000 soldiers from China’s provinces to test every resident of Shanghai.
More than 70 Chinese cities have implemented restrictive COVID-19 control measures since mid-March, and these areas account for about 40% of China’s economic output.
However, the Omicron virus variant is different from other COVID-19 viruses in the past. It may pose a more severe challenge to the CCP ruling party because it spreads very fast. Usually, it only takes 1.5 to 3 days for a person to be infected. , the speed of detection and isolation often cannot keep up with the spread of the virus.
Michael Osterholm, director of the U.S. Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said in February that stopping Omicron is as difficult as blocking the wind, and that Beijing cannot use past “authoritarian methods” to contain the Omicron variant.
“Fighting all previous virus variants is like putting out a forest fire. It can be done,” he said. “But Omicron is like a mountain wind. How can you stop the wind?”
It is now just a few months before Xi Jinping is awarded an exceptional third term at the party congress once in a decade this fall. Regarding Shanghai’s return to the zero policy, Pei Minxin, a professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College in the United States, told Huari: “Xi Jinping has been caught.”
“Changing the zero-clearing policy now will raise more questions about his leadership. This is politically untenable,” Pei Minxin added.
Yokogawa, a keynote speaker and current affairs commentator on the self-media channel Yokogawa Viewpoint, told The Epoch Times: “Xi Jinping is constantly tied to the dynamic reset policy. If he releases the reset policy, he will likely be seized by the opposition for this reason. He settles the bill.”
Shanghai’s return to zero policy is a prime example. He said that the CCP cannot afford the cost of trial and error, which means that if it chooses to coexist with the virus, it must bear the process of virus infection and rising death toll. On the other hand, the CCP’s previous lies and high-profile speeches touting the superiority of the socialist system have blocked its own path.
Responsible editor: Ye Ziwei#