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Public Opinion: Law Profession Pointed Out: Two Government “Zero-COVID” Measures Violate the Law

Tong Zhiwei, a Professor of Constitutional Law, East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, published on social media that two of the government’s “Zero-COVID” measures are illegal. He said that he had consulted over 20 professors from his university, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, South China University of Technology, Wuhan University, Hubei University, and Peking University, before publishing the article.

The first government practice that he stated violated the law is to forcibly take residents to modular hospitals or other facilities for quarantine. That practice should be stopped right away. The authorities’ justification for the force-taking is the claim that Shanghai is in an emergency state. However, according to the Constitution, any organization or officials in Shanghai do not have the legal right to declare an emergency state for Shanghai.

The second illegal government practice is to force residents to hand in the keys to their homes so that the authorities can go inside to spray chemicals to kill the COVID virus. According to the law, citizen’s homes are inviolable. An illegal search or illegal intrusion into the homes of citizens is prohibited.

Source: Epoch Times, May 8, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/5/8/n13730561.htm

Government: Shanghai Volunteers Found Someone Took Their Identifies and their Compensation

Recently, when people in Shanghai tried to register themselves as volunteers, they found their names had already been registered. Someone had taken their identities, completed the registration process, and collected the compensation meant for volunteers.

For example, a woman found from the official volunteer website that she did 26 hours of volunteer work in 2017, but she was pregnant at that time and never did that work. An elementary student found she “was registered” in November 2019 when she was seven; a son found that his aging father did 16 hours of volunteer work in 2018 though his father had been sick and had mobility problems.

There were also many fake volunteer identities and fake incidents of participation in work during the COVID lockdown. A man reported to the authorities that he found out that he “was registered” as a volunteer in two groups. One was with the Huangpu District Yuyuan Street Neighborhood Volunteer Service Center, which pays each volunteer at least 50 Yuan (US $7.5) for each event. He had never received any money. Another man said volunteers in his neighborhood receive 120 Yuan each day and some other regions are even paid 400 Yuan.

On March 3, Xinhua reported that 5.2 million people in Shanghai, or over 21 percent of the permanent population there, had registered volunteer accounts.

Editor’s note: Obviously in Shanghai, someone has stolen people’s identities to register volunteer accounts and then collected money based on their fake registration. Since this involves repeated payment distributions from the government, it is unlikely that the authorities knew nothing about it.

Sources:
1. Epoch Times, April 27, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/4/27/n13721701.htm
2. Xinhua, March 3, 2022
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-03/03/c_139781116.htm

Government: Beijing Plans to Keep the “Zero-COVID” Policy Until the 20th Party Congress

Two sources indicate that Beijing plans to continue its “Zero-COVID” policy and not switch to the coexistence approach at least until after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) holds its 20th National Congress later this year. The “Zero-COVID” policy has created mounting humanitarian crises in China, especially during the ongoing Shanghai lockdown.

Joerg Wuttke, President of the E.U. Chamber of Commerce in China, said during an interview with the Swiss, German-language daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), “(I)n closed meetings – especially in ministries that deal with the economy and businesses – I meet very well-informed and open-minded top politicians. They know what Zero Covid means for the economy. It’s just that they can’t use this knowledge to bring about policy change at the moment. Until the 20th Party Congress, which will take place later this year, they will stick to the Zero Covid policy. President Xi wants to be confirmed for a third term, so he cannot change his narrative this close to the finish line. The president has maneuvered himself into two dead ends at once: He can’t change his Covid policy, and he can’t change anything about his friendship with Vladimir Putin.”

A news commentator from Epoch Times stated that he had received the meeting minutes of an official COVID information meeting on April 25. The keynote speaker was Jiang Rongmeng, a member of the National Health Commission’s COVID Expert Group and Vice President of Beijing Ditan Hospital. Jiang is a real medical expert in the CCP inner cycle: he went to Wuhan during the lockdown, is an expert in the Beijing Emergency Management Bureau, and is one of the main authors of the “COVID Treatment Plan.”

Jiang listed five pre-conditions for China to change its Zero-COVID policy:

  1. Medicines need to be available, which won’t be ready within six months.
  2. 80 percent of the elderly are vaccinated, which is possible to achieve in six months.
  3. There are enough isolation beds, which is easy to do.
  4. There is enough ICU capacity [throughout China], which is unlikely to happen. China lags far behind the United States and Europe on this and it is impossible to catch up in a short term. It is easy to buy equipment but it takes 5 years to train an ICU doctor.
  5. Public opinion needs to be reset. Now people are scared of COVID and many will go to the hospital even if they have a low temperature when switching to the coexistence policy, which will deplete the hospital’s capacity.

These conditions indicates that Jiang does not think China is ready to change its COVID policy in the next six months due to its own situation.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Sources:
1. NZZ, April 30, 2022
https://themarket.ch/interview/chinas-leadership-is-prisoner-of-its-own-narrative-ld.6545
2. Epoch Times, April 27, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/4/27/n13722036.htm

Shanghai’s Infectious Disease Expert Calls on Authorities to Stop “Zero-COVID” Policy

On April 27, Epoch Times reported that Miao Xiaohui, a leading infectious disease expert in Shanghai, issued a post on April 23 calling on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities to stop its “zero-COVID ” policy, so as to reduce the secondary disasters that the approach has caused.

Miao was the vice president of Changzheng Hospital, which is affiliated with the Second Military Medical University of China. Concurrently he was the director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University. He made it clear that the “zero-COVID ” approach was ineffective and lacked any scientific basis. He said that a number of neighborhoods in Shanghai had been locked down and controlled for nearly one month, that that period exceeds the three longest incubation periods for the Omicron virus and is “completely inconsistent with the basic laws of infectious disease epidemics.”

The “zero-COVID ” approach has triggered a large number of secondary disasters. One example is that many people’s deaths should not have occurred. “Let’s stop it!” He appealed.

As early as April 8, Miao even publicly pointed out that, under the strict lockdown, the “zero-COVID ” policy will lead to a run-on medical resources. He called for concern about the additional deaths and for settling the situation as soon as possible. He believed that, during the Shanghai lock-down period, because of the run-on medical resources, a number of chronic non-infectious diseases, infectious diseases, and acute diseases, plus a 66 percent increase in the suicide rate due to psychological stress, will result in a severe number of additional deaths that should not be ignored.

(Since the lockdown of Shanghai, many hospitals have been closed. This has led citizens to lose access to basic medical services and, as a result, many have lost their lives due to the lack of timely treatment. Some people spontaneously counted the list of dead persons in Shanghai who “died not from the COVID-19, but because of it.” By April 27, the number of deaths reached 176. For example, Yu Hongsan, a senior notary at the Shanghai Oriental Justice Office, suffered an asthma attack and passed away on March 19 because an ambulance could not get to him in time. By April 28, The total death toll from COVID-19 in Shanghai was 337 .)

The need for and the cost of the “zero-COVID ” approach and the lockdown of the city should be considered carefully, Miao stated. In order to reduce the crowding for the use medical resources, he suggested that asymptomatic infected people may be isolated at home; re-checked as to whether the universal nucleic acid testing is absolutely necessary; and hospitals should not be closed completely. It should be noted especially that nucleic acid testing can increase the problem of cross-infection.

On April 24, Ding Xian, former Party Secretary of the Jing’an Branch of the Shanghai Huashan Hospital, also pointed out the shortcomings of the “zero-COVID” strategy:  “Repeated nucleic acid testing, overwhelming burdening of staff, and a most serious cross-infection pattern, where science has been thrown in the trash.”

Yin Youkuan, the former deputy director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Huashan Hospital of Shanghai indicated in an April 22 post that the number of positive cases will increase by 3 to 4 percent for every full staff nucleic acid test done. He took a community in Shanghai as an example where originally there were no positive cases. However, after a few days of nucleic acid testing, 83 positive cases emerged. He pointed out,”That’s what the staff brought in.”

At present, Shanghai has implemented a so-called “Hard Quarantine” in a closed and controlled area. This means that the doors in the whole building are locked from the outside and residents can only move around inside their own apartments.

Source: Epoch Times, April 27, 2022.                                                                                                                                          https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/4/27/n13721825.htm

Propaganda: The CCP Fakes a Calm Scene While Beijing Went Through Crazy Stocking up

Shanghai has showcased to China and the world how big the humanitarian disasters are that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can create and does not care about, when it is imposing its strict lockdown to fight the COVID-19 virus.

The city of Beijing recently reported increased COVID cases. The CCP is known for hiding its COVID numbers, so the actual infection count in Beijing is unknown. Residents in Beijing, learning from the Shanghai disaster, started a wave of buying out everything from the grocery stores in order to prepare for a possible lockdown which the authorities might announce anytime soon. They were thinking ahead so they would not be caught without food.

Similar to other stores, CCTV employees also emptied the grocery store inside China Central Television (CCTV).

On April 24, Liu Xin, a news anchor at the China Global Television Network (CGTN), the overseas propaganda arm of the CCTV, posted a message with her relatively true thoughts (without much of the CCP’s message) on Twitter: “Beijing’s Turn, but we are getting ready. I stocked up too, for the first time in two years. Let the tough times come.” She also posted pictures of empty shelves

However, buying out everything in a hurry does not reflect the intention of the CCP’s propaganda. The CCP wants to project a calm, stable scene. It does not want panic scenes and does not care about the reality of whether people have stocked up enough food and supplies.

So a day later, Liu deleted her earlier message and posted a new one on Twitter: “Overnight, the very same shop got filled up again with fresh products. It’s just a matter of what you want to buy, not what you can! It was completely unnecessary for me to overthink last night.” She also posted pictures of shelves fully loaded with vegetables.

Also on April 25, a former CCTV reporter Wang Zhi’an posted on Twitter, “The CCTV has its own grocery store. My former colleague told me that the CCTV’s employees emptied that store, with nothing left. After the crazy buying, these anchors sat down in front of the TV camera and told the audience, ‘Beijing residents, you can live a good life; there is no need to rush to stock up.’”

Source: Epoch Times, April 27, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/4/27/n13721547.htm

Government: Beijing Defends its “Zero-COVID” Strategy

The COVID-19 virus is continuing to spread in China. Since April, 12 local authorities (in provinces, cities, and counties) have imposed lockdowns either of their whole region or within a district. This is in addition to Shanghai, which was locked down in March. Around 373 million people in China are now living under COVID lockdown measures. {1}

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controlled media recently published several commentary articles to defend the “Zero-COVID” strategy and downplay the humanitarian crisis and the economic impact of both COVID and the lockdowns. The following are comments from the CCP’s media:

  • Xinhua on April 12: A Short-Term “Pain” Will not Shake China’s Economic Fundamentals {2}
  • Xinhua on April 15: A Temporary “Restriction” Is for a Better “Loosening Up” – Understand the Necessity of the “Zero-COVID” Policy by reading the Explanations of Authoritative Experts’  {3}
  • China News Service on April 16: Act Quickly to Control the Quickly-Spreading Virus and Do Not “Lie Flat (Stop Working)”; Life Will Return to Normal In the End {4}

Related postings on Chinascope:

Sources:
1. China Press, April 16, 2022
https://www.chinapress.com.my/20220416/ ◤全球大流行◢坚持动态清零-中国4月已有12地封控/
2. Xinhua, April 12, 2022
http://www.news.cn/fortune/2022-04/12/c_1128554047.htm
3. Xinhua, April 15, 2022
http://www.news.cn/politics/2022-04/15/c_1128564920.htm
4. China News Services, April 16, 2022
https://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/2022/04-16/9730513.shtml

Government: Office Document Shows Jilin Plans to Impose Lockdown with No Advanced Notice

The Epoch Times reported that an internal government document revealed that the authorities in Jilin Province have decided not to provide notice in advance to all of the residents before locking down a city or a region.

The document referred to the provincial COVID control meeting on April 15, where both the Provincial Party Secretary and Governor attended and spoke. The meeting requested, “After the current lockdown is over, residents should store at least a month-long supply of meat, eggs, and milk and a two weeks-long supply of vegetables. In the future, there won’t be any advanced notice before a lockdown takes place. [The Authorities] will impose a lockdown immediately to avoid close contact [and COVID infections] due to people’s rushing out to buy supplies.”

However, people are questioning if it is realistic for them to store such a big volume of supplies of perishable goods since  they have limited living space and only a small amount of room in their refrigerators.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Source: Epoch Times, April 16, 2022
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/22/4/16/n13713245.htm

Pandemic: Shanghai Adopted Implication Measure to Force People to Go to Modular Hospitals

Shanghai reported 26,330 COVID cases (1,189 confirmed infection cases and 25,141 asymptomatic cases) on April 13. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known for hiding COVID information, so the actual infection count is unknown.

One of the methods the Shanghai authorities use to hide the COVID count is the way they handle those people who test positive. The authorities still report them as negative on official records but verbally notify them that they are positive. Then when authorities come to take them to the modular hospitals to isolate them, the infected people refuse to go since their official records show they are negative.

The Shanghai police announced that they will “strictly handle” any actions that COVID patients take in refusing to be placed in isolation. The police  listed ten prohibited actions, including people leaving their apartment while being quarantined and intentionally destroying the seal on their door in order to get out.

A residential committee in Hongkou District issued a notice on April 12 saying, “For those confirmed patients (from official testing), even if their self-test showed negative (which might mean they have healed), they must go to modular hospitals for treatment and obtain a paper stating they are released from quarantine. If residents refuse to go, they will be permanently marked as red in their Health Code application (thus they will have a hard time going out, entering facilities, or traveling); and the whole building in which they live will be put on lockdown. In other words, residents in the entire building will be implicated.

Related postings on Chinascope:

Source:
1. Voice of America, April 13, 2022
https://www.voachinese.com/a/shanghai-vows-punishment-for-covid-lockdown-violators-as-cases-hit-25-000-20220413/6527652.html
2. Radio Free Asia, April 13, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/ql1-04132022042018.html