The number of infections marks a maximum of the entire pandemic and exceeds 31,000 per day, leaving millions of people in lockdown
The ‘covid zero’ strategy that China implemented almost three years ago with the lockdown in Wuhan has saved hundreds of thousands of lives. But with the appearance of the omicron variant, it has lost its effectiveness: 31,527 infections were recorded this Thursday, the highest number since the outbreak of the pandemic. Neither the tests that the population has to take every 48 hours to lead a normal life, nor the confinement imposed at various levels of government – from specific urbanizations to entire neighborhoods – have managed to stop a wave that threatens to become a tsunami. lead. Not only health, but also social and political. Because citizens’ discontent is multiplying like the virus and has already erupted into violent demonstrations that worry the government.
A good example of the impact that the ‘zero covid’ strategy is having on various areas of life in China is what is happening at the Taiwanese Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou city, where 674 infections were recorded on Wednesday. The detection of an outbreak in the iPhone’s main global manufacturing center caused the lockdown of the facilities a few weeks ago, which continued to operate with workers forced to stay there day and night. It was then that some workers decided to escape, fearing the virus or the confinement itself, and go home on foot for days, evading the scrutiny of the mobile health application, a QR code that is scanned everywhere and which, when it turns red, it prevents access to a place or public service.
The tech giant offered economic incentives to its 200,000 employees to avoid problems in a production that, despite everything, it has not managed to keep stable and will deplete Apple’s inventories ahead of the Christmas campaign. But now many workers are rioting, saying they are not getting the promised payments and they can’t leave the factory either. Not in vain, in the end, the authorities decided to detain six million residents in Zhengzhou for at least five days, more than half the population of the capital of Henan province.
While shouting ‘we want to go home!’ Very unusual scenes took place in China near the factory on Wednesday: hundreds of Foxconn workers confronted police with iron bars and stones, forcing them to call for reinforcements and riot gear. Today, the company has apologized, attributing the delay to a bug that has already been fixed in its payment system, and the situation in Zhengzhou appears to be under control. But the demonstrations spread throughout the country’s geography with sparks of varying sizes.
In Guangzhou, one of China’s major industrial centers, hundreds of residents took to the streets last week to denounce the economic impact of the confinement on their lives. of agent; In many other cities, residents of urbanizations or residents of cramped neighborhoods complain about the difficulties in obtaining food or the arbitrariness with which the neighborhood committees work, and they are doing the impossible to get around the closures. «I am a legal person in all respects, but I will not allow them to lock me up in a hotel because I have been in a building where a case has been detected. It’s ridiculous,” says a young man with the surname Jie from Shanghai, who sees all restrictions as more political than health. “They want to control us,” he says.
Despite the fact that several places have timidly tried to live with the virus, the experiment has always been nipped in the bud and China’s power leadership has on several occasions reaffirmed the strict implementation of ‘zero covid’, waving the banner of ‘saving lives in spite of everything’. Although China has already vaccinated 90% of the population, the remaining 10% mainly belong to the most vulnerable layer, the over-60s, who are reluctant to self-inject. And the government fears the consequences this could have in a not yet very solid health system.
“I have been speechless when the stadiums filled up with people without masks or any disability during the World Cup.” Feng, a 30-year-old from Shanghai, admits to being afraid of the corona virus. “They led us to believe it causes a deadly disease, but I’m increasingly doubtful,” he says. In large part because he communicates with friends abroad.
“They tell me that they live completely normal lives and that we are the Chinese who use illogical measures. I thought you Westerners were irresponsible, but it’s true that with the vaccines I don’t know why we have more and more quarantines. It looks like we are returning to the starting box,” he laments.
In China’s social networks and media, the slogan is to praise the ‘covid zero’ policy and minimize its economic impact. This Thursday, a study concluded that 20% of the country’s GDP has been halted, a volume similar to that halted during Shanghai’s lockdown, between March and April. However, several videos and critical posts manage to evade censorship and raise ghosts.
“We see a lot of excesses and abuse of power. Although the videos are being removed, many are coming in and we are increasingly against the restrictions,” says Feng. “I would like to know what situation the hospitals are in, because I am starting to fear that more people are dying from the measures against covid than from the virus,” says the young 30-year-old from Shanghai.
There are many who think like them. While coronavirus fears persist, Chinese citizens are increasingly asking the government uncomfortable questions. ‘Are we going to live like this forever? Are they going to make us control them permanently with our cell phones? When can we renew the passport to leave the country? Why is there no help for those affected by the restrictions such as in Europe?” Feng sums up increasingly angrily to her leaders.
Source: La Verdad
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