Covid is once again surging in China
While the Party Doubles Down on Zero Covid
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Chinese leader Xi Jinpingis tying his legitimacy to his Zero Covid Policy.
Zero Covid means lockdowns, it means mass testing,
and it means anyone who tests positive going to a government run quarantine center.
Woof. Backed the wrong pony in this race. That’s like putting your life savings into the
Titanic. *After* it started sinking. I’m sure this’ll pay off any day now.
Covid testing stations are on almost every corner.
And Xi Jinping has repeatedly warned against relying on herd immunity as an option.
Saying, “Even if there are some temporary impacts on the economy,
we will not put people’s lives and health in harm’s way.”
Because if anyone cares about people’s lives and health, it’s
this guy.
That’s like a cat saying they’re not willing to risk knocking something off the counter.
Not only do they do it… they enjoy it.
Anyway, Xi is trying to seem benevolent. Because later this year comes the 20th Party Congress.
It’s a major Communist Party meeting. And that’s where Xi Jinping will try to give himself a third
term as Party leader, essentially declaring himself leader for life.
So how is the Zero Covid Policy working?
About as effective as the anti-iceberg spray on the Titanic.
There’s yet another Covid outbreak in Xi’an, a city of 13 million.
But don’t worry,Xi’an is not going into a lockdown.
They’re just going into temporary control measures for seven days.
Where everything is closed, from entertainment venues, to restaurants, to places of worship.
Schools are ending early while college campuses are sealed.
And a few neighborhoods are locked down.
That’s all.
So for some reason, crowds of people are trying to leave the city.
Maybe because memories are still fresh from the last lockdown there, just a few months ago.
People locked in their homes faced shortages of food and critical supplies.
Hospitals were packed with Covid patients, even if they were showing no symptoms.
In a major scandal, “One heavily pregnant woman was allegedly turned away from a
hospital on New Year's Day because she didn't have a valid Covid-19 test.”
She had a miscarriage right outside the hospital.
But it’s not just Xi’an that’s having a new Covid surge.
After an outbreak in Anhui province, officials put 1.7 million people under lockdown.
And officials in Shanghai are putting everyone through yet another round of mass testing.
And even though there’s not an official citywide lockdown yet in Shanghai,
more and more apartment complexes are getting locked down.
This is not a good sign.
The Zero Covid policy is basically just that Grandpa Simpson GIF looping forever.
The problem is yet another Covid variant—this one extremely contagious—is
rapidly spreading throughout the country. And the Communist Party is about to take
unprecedented measures in a last ditch effort to keep its Zero Covid policy afloat.
I’ll tell you more after this quick commercial break.
Welcome back.
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So while most of the world has accepted that Covid is here to stay, the Chinese Communist
Party is still insisting on a Zero Covid policy. And that’s not matching up well with reality.
They refuse to face the reality of a system that never works?
Hmm. That doesn’t sound like the Chinese *Communist* Party.
The problem is yet another subvariant of Omicron, called BA.5.
Most US Covid cases now are the BA.5 subvariant of Omicron.
“Virologists believe the subvariant is adept at evading immune defenses built up from
prior infections and vaccines, making it more likely people will catch Covid-19 repeatedly,
while raising their risk of developing complications.”
And China is now reporting the first cases of it. In Xi’an actually.
And with the 20th Party Congress coming up, the capital, Beijing,
rolled out China’s first ever Covid vaccine mandate last Wednesday.
Certain venues would require vaccination to get in.
And some people, like medical staff, would need to get booster shots to keep working.
Some village committees took it much further though, telling older
people they would no longer get welfare benefits if they didn’t get vaccinated.
Then, two days later, Beijing officials seemed to suddenly scrap the vaccine mandate.
Instead saying that people will still be able
to get into all public venues with a negative Covid test within 72 hours.
And that while the city will continue to promote vaccination, it’s on a voluntary basis.
Now while there was definitely public backlash against Beijing’s vaccine mandate,
I wouldn’t say this is Beijing backing down due to public opinion.
They never do that with the rest of their Zero Covid policy.
Here’s what I think probably happened: Beijing’s local vaccine mandate
went against the central government’s overall policy from last year that there shouldn’t be
vaccine mandates. And the central government didn’t like that. So Beijing backed down.
But don’t worry. With or without a vaccine mandate, the Chinese Communist Party is
going to stick with their Zero Covid policy of mass testing, monitoring, and lockdowns.
Especially ahead of the Party Congress.
Because like I said, under the CCP, it’s not your body. It’s the people’s body.
And this show would not be possible without the support from viewers like you.
So as a thank you to everyone who contributes on the crowd funding platform Patreon,
or our exclusive social media community on Locals, I’ll answer one of their questions.
Today’s question comes from
Logan on Patreon. “Did we ever recover that F-35 at the bottom of the South China Sea?”
So back in February, an F-35 fighter jet, one of the most
advanced in the US arsenal, crashed into the South China Sea.
This was an unconfirmed photo of it.
And this video was confirmed by the Pentagon.
Miraculously, no one died.
But this was a major problem,
because the Chinese Communist Party would love to get their hands on one.
After all, they already stole the designs.
In fact a lot of Chinese military equipment seems to have been,
shall we say, inspired by American designs?
Like China’s J-31 fighter jet, which looks a lot like America’s F-22.
And China’s Y-20 transport plane, which looks like the Boeing C-17.And
China’s Z-20 helicopter, which looks surprisingly like a Black Hawk.
Plus China’s Cyborg Police Man, which I’m pretty sure is just RoboCop with a Chinese flag sticker.
So there was a big rush to get the F-35 back before China got to it.
And I’m happy to say: In March, the F-35 was recovered. By the US.
I guess the CCP will just have to settle for their stolen designs.
Thanks for your question and your long time support, Logan.
And thank you for watching.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.