Has anyone in this thread said that central was waiting, hoping, for something like the protests to happen so that finally have an excuse to lift the lockdown? It that had transitioned out of zero covid without the protests, and thousands of people die, that would have been the far worse scenario no?
Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)
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manqiangrexue
Brigadier
No, you don't wait for things like that; the CCP doesn't push blame or responsibility on the people. A very small minority protested; the majority of the people expect the CCP to do things according to science and data instead of riots. The excuse that street riots forced a bad opening would not be accepted by the people at all.
However, someone on here did mention the possibility of the riots being CIA-funded to force the CCP to over-commit to Zero COVID when China is already planning on re-opening because the West believes that the CCP can't afford to be seen as weak so it must do the opposite of what rioters want.
This is 5D chess.
I said it before, the day when Zero COVID ends in China, will mark the "ending" of the pandemic.
Agree with you here. They’ve moved so quickly to reopen you have to suspect they were waiting for a political justification and found one in the form of people protesting.
Protests may have ironically been a good thing for the government. They were stuck - PMI numbers last few months were terrible, popular discontent was growing, vaccination campaign was stalled - and the inevitable casualties from any reopening would have been seen as a black mark on the Covid zero campaign. Now the government can frame it as, we tried our best but had to release lockdowns due to popular demand. I think that narrative is working - if you look through Chinese social media, of the group complaining about reopening, they generally blame protestors rather than the government.
There are now thousands of confirmed cases and tens of thousands asymptomatic cases every day in China with only 106 people in a serious condition and just a handful of deaths.
China should let go of Zero Covid but still should have measures in place to slow the spread not to overwhelm the health care system.
China should let go of Zero Covid but still should have measures in place to slow the spread not to overwhelm the health care system.
Yeah, I find it hard to believe that Xi and the party really truly cared about some really old people dying. I think they were justifiably afraid of the societal blowback of having lots of death. They couldn't re-open unless the blame of eventual covid deaths can be reasonably be placed on something else.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
When the numbers get higher, it's not limited to super old people with co-morbidities anymore. As the infection rate substantially increases into the millions and tens/hundreds of millions, you'll see all kinds of people be affected or die; young people with long COVID and very valuable scientists in their 60's start to get badly affected or die are probably the next most likely things to happen if the re-opening is bad.
China is not a democracy; you cannot blame the people for anything. Those riots were very small scale and easy to deal with; to say that they caused you to fold your hand is like a parent blaming thier kids for being unhealthy because they were screaming so the only thing to do was to give them candy and ice cream. Chinese leaders actually treat China like its their own; regardless of who's to blame, the buck stops here. The only thing that matters is if it makes China stronger or weaker in the fight against the US. Blame doesn't really come into play; it's always the lessons learned and how to move forward. In America, leaders treat the nation like a rental property because they know they're probably gone next term and can blame it on someone else. Everybody plays the it's-his-fault-not-mine-I'm-not-paying-for-it game.
Well, Chinese media outlets such as Global Times and local authorities have been parroting how Omicron isn’t that bad and is flu like and how Long Covid isn’t that widespread. You might want to read this thread thoroughly because you clearly missed a lot of news. The Chinese are radically changing their stance as we speak.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
I didn't miss any of that. I read all pages before responding. This is what they say and it's clearly something to sooth panic and justify reopening. The fact is that there are still 2,600 deaths a week in the US and not all of them are old/unvaccinated people with comorbidities. They can't say, "We made these calculations and only the oldest weakest should die within these numbers so we find that acceptable." They need to tell people it's safe so they understand the government's decision to open up. I hope it's mostly true but it's definitely not going to affect every person in a mild way. There will be people who are severely affected and some who will die; the question is just how low that is and if that is low enough in a population the size of China to prevent mass deaths.