Lianfang Street Standoff
A rare rupture in crowd control reveals the level of "zero-COVID" frustration in China.
By Lisa Peryman, Special Correspondent to Probe International
Hundreds, possibly thousands of residents in a central Chongqing compound took to the streets in protest over the weekend, demanding relief from China's "zero-COVID" policy, ready to storm roadblocks as special police were called in to maintain control.
Videos and photographs show residents of Lianfang Street in the Shapingba District of drought-fatigued Chongqing, gathered at a local traffic carousel on Saturday night (Aug. 27), in front of roadblocks that prevented entry in and out of their zone as part of a strict lockdown of the area. Residents complained the lockdown had remained in place despite the absence of even one case of COVID-19 in 10 consecutive days.
A street view of the city under lockdown.
Video footage from the night shows special police assembling as the crowd packs the Fangcao traffic circle to demand their area be removed from lockdown measures and access to transit (buses, subways and taxis) be restored.
Radio Free Asia reports one resident, captured on video, described the scene as:
"Lots of people ... kicking up a fuss .... the SWAT team is here. The government won't ease the lockdown, which affects several thousand [households]."
The Epoch Times quotes a resident from Lianfang Street describing the impetus for the protest: "Are you angry that you are locked at home? Which one did not cooperate with doing nucleic acid [PSA] testing every day [for COVID]? It will be unblocked after a disturbance."
In the early morning of Aug. 28, Chongqing officials announced an end to restrictions for several streets in the district, which immediately aroused interest from Netizens buoyed by the Lianfang standoff and its response. A resident from another community is quoted as saying:
"As soon as Lianfang Street makes trouble, you will unblock it. Do you want to organize people from other streets to make trouble before you can see it and unblock it?"
Measures to maintain President Xi Jinping's zero-COVID policy are described as chaotic, with requirements for customs clearance changing from one day to the next for international passengers. The lockdown of communities is experienced as arbitrary, curbing personal mobility and freedom, and leaving residents suddenly stranded and unable to enter their homes and communities.
Lai Jianping, a professor of international law at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Epoch Times:
"The CCP's efforts to clear the dynamics have made life difficult for people, all walks of life are in depression, and the bottom [of] society is crying. While Western countries continue to lift restrictions related to the epidemic, the CCP has not loosened it, which is equivalent to isolating China and affecting its communication with the world."
President Xi's expected anointment as China's most powerful leader in decades at the CCP's upcoming 20th Party Congress on Oct. 16, is wedded to a zero-COVID strategy. Capping the death toll from the pandemic signals to the people of China, the Party, under his leadership, delivers good governance in a country where medical care is relatively weak and its population vast.
Xi abolished the presidential two-term limit in 2018 to permit the possibility of his remaining leader for life. It’s predicted at this year's congress, Xi will look to formalize the abbreviation of his banner phrase to the more potent "Xi Jinping Thought," a banner term that would place him on a level with Mao Zedong.
Meanwhile, a recent report by the Beijing-based think tank, Anbound, criticized the CCP's zero-COVID policy and its ongoing use of strict lockdowns. It warned China's economy was "at risk of stalling" under the weight of "epidemic prevention and control policies."
Predictably, the report released on the think tank's WeChat and Weibo social media accounts on Aug. 28 was deleted the following day. Described as only mildly critical of official policy, the report's censorship garnered more interest than its contents.
At 5.5 per cent, the country's GDP growth target is set at its lowest in three decades but is expected to crawl in closer to 3 per cent. The censored Anbound report identified the impact of repeated shutdowns in 2022 as posing an economic "freezing effect" even worse than that endured at the start of the outbreak when the entire country shut down temporarily.