China Relaxes Zero-COVID Policies after Protests

After three years of harsh COVID-19 policies in China, citizens took to the streets to protest. China had adopted a zero-covid policy to combat the country’s large population (1.4 billion) against the deadly virus.

Officials forced citizens who tested positive for COVID-19 or were in close contact with someone who tested positive to quarantine in hospitals, which were often unsanitary and way overcrowded.

In response to these protests, citizens can now quarantine at home. In addition, domestic travel restrictions have loosened, schools with low risk can return to in-person instruction, and mandatory testing will be reduced.

The protests began after a fire in an apartment building in northwestern China killed ten people and injured nine. The zero-COVID policy was part to blame for this, because the residents of the building had been trapped inside for months due to lockdowns. AP news reported that, “Some said fire engines had been blocked by pandemic control barriers or by cars stranded after their owners were put in quarantine.”

During the past few years, there has been protests in China regarding the zero-COVID policy, but they were mostly directed at local governments and officials. In contrast, the demonstrations that began after the fire were targeted at a national level. Xi Jinping, the current Chinese president, was a large proponent for the zero-COVID policy, so the protests were a direct challenge to his policies and authority.

Xi Jinping apparently told a European Union official that because the Omicron variant is less deadly than Delta, China is more likely to relax more of their policies in the future (CNN).

Because the communist party has so much control in China, protests like this are unprecedented. Governmental officials are not accustomed to dealing with backlash in the form of demonstrations. Therefore, it is likely the government softened its covid policies to reduce the likelihood of future potential protests.

As China now joins the rest of the world with lessened COVID-19 restrictions, it will be interesting to see the outcome, considering their population of 1.4 billion and the overpopulation of cities.

But what we do know is, protests can create hope when all hope seems to be lost.

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/02/china/china-xi-eu-meeting-covid-protests-intl/index.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/7/china-loosens-covid-quarantine-and-testing-rules-nationwide

https://apnews.com/article/china-fires-6a1b6902e6ccf87e064f1232045a2848

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/07/1141172723/china-announces-a-roll-back-of-its-strict-anti-covid-19-
measures