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State Media Reemphasized Adherence to the Zero-Covid Policy

When it was widely expected in China that Xi Jinping would no longer insist on the Zero-Covid policy, a commentary published in the state newspaper on November 14 mentioned the need to insist on the Zero-Covid policy nine times and even suggested that “epidemic prevention and control should be a routine procedure.”

On November 15, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) People’s Daily newspaper ran a commentary which mentioned that “unswervingly implementing the overall policy of ‘Zero Covid’” was a decision made at the November 10 Politburo meeting chaired by Xi Jinping, and that the “optimization program” recently proposed by the State Council is not a relaxation of prevention and control, let alone is it giving up the policy.

The article said, “The implementation of the Zero Covid policy is determined by of the CCP’s Central Committee under comrade Xi Jinping.  … Adhering to the zero Covid policy is the bottom line of epidemic prevention and control for a large country of 1.4 billion people.”

The article does not mention when the zero Covid policy will end, but only emphasized the need not to give up.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 15, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/wulb-11152022191929.htmli

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

China Released 20 Measures on the Control of COVID

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Politburo held a meeting on November 10 to review its COVID policy, including 20 measures it proposed on “optimizing” the  control of COVID. The next day, the State Council published the 20 measures.

Some highlights of the new rules are:

Measure #1: Those who had close contact with a COVID patient will follow the “5+3” rule (five days of centralized quarantine followed by an additional three days of home quarantine) instead of the current “7+3” rule.

Measure #2: Stop identifying the second-level contacts (people who had contact with the people who had contact with COVID a patient)

Measure #3: People from high-risk regions going to other places will follow a seven-day home quarantine instead of the current centralized quarantine.

Measure #4: Adjust region’s risk level from “high-media-low” to “high-low.” High-risk is narrowed to a building or a unit (in the past the control was more limited to the residential community which usually is a walled residential compound with many buildings within).

Measure #6: Regions with no COVID cases do not need to have all-people PCR test. The “two tests per day” or “three tests per day” practices will be stopped.

Measure #7: Eliminate the inbound flight meltdown mechanism (stop the airline’s next flight(s) if COVID patients were detected on the current flight). Passengers only need to provide one negative COVID test in the past 48 hours (instead of two negative tests).

Measure #10: People coming into China from other countries will follow the “5+3” rule instead of the current “7+3” rule.

Measure #12: Promote COVID vaccinations.

Sources:
1. People’s Daily, November 10, 2022
http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2022/1110/c1024-32563558.html
2. People’s Daily, November 12, 2022
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2022-11/12/nw.D110000renmrb_20221112_2-04.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

BBC Chinese: A Large Number of Zhengzhou Foxconn Workers Fled on Foot

BBC Chinese recently reported that, at the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province, there are many workers who have been fleeing this largest Apple iPhone assembly plant in China amid reports that the Covid outbreak has forced a lockdown. It has not been possible to verify how many confirmed cases of Covid-19 were found at the plant. Parts of this big city of about 10 million are now on lockdown as China continues to impose strict government Covid control measures. Taiwan’s Foxconn Group, a top supplier for Apple, has hundreds of thousands of workers at its Zhengzhou factory, but the company has yet to provide official figures on the number of infections. Due to the outbreak at the Zhengzhou factory, iPhone shipments in November may be reduced by as much as 30 percent. Footage shared online, including Chinese social media, showed workers leaving the factory and starting a long walk back home so they could avoid arrest on public transportation. A 22-year-old Foxconn worker surnamed Xia said that the dormitory where he and his colleagues were kept was “chaotic,” so he jumped over the fence and escaped. Under China’s strict Zero Covid policy, local governments have the power to act quickly to contain any outbreak of the virus. This includes anything from total lockdowns to regular testing and restrictions on travel . According to online reports, these workers did not in fact flee at first. After the outbreak came, they were helpless and could only obey orders. If it wasn’t for the unbearable situation, they would have been willing to cooperate. Some reports indicated that, after ten days of not having food and water, many workers broke through the interception of the security guards and managed what can be called, “a great escape.”

Source: BBC Chinese, October 31, 2022
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-63455490

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology Social Stability

Two Hundred Million Chinese Face the Risk of Being Locked Down

Nomura Securities estimated that by October 24, 28 cities in China, including Guangzhou, Wuhan, and others had various levels of lock down control, impacting a possible 200 million people living in these cities.

Instead of locking down an entire city, China has been locking down sub-regions inside the city based on where the COVID patients live and where they have been. About 1 million people in Wuhan were locked in at home. After reporting 73 cases on October 27, Guangzhou intensified its lockdown. Fuzhou City, Fujian Province locked down 36 colleges and universities.

Xinjiang and Tibet continue to be the major disaster areas. Many hotels have refused to take visitors coming from Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia as hotel guests.

Source: Radio Free Asia, October 28, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/huanjing/gt2-10282022051054.html

 

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Student Informer Reported on Chinese University Professor

On October 27, Xu Songyan, a professor at China’s Southwest University (SWU) located in the city of Chongqing, posted on Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese microblogging platform, that a student informer who, after secretly sitting in his class, told him that Xu will be questioned (by the authorities). The post, which was subsequently deleted from Weibo, received attention from millions of Chinese netizens.

Chinese universities have what are called “information officers,” who are students appointed by the school to collect information on teaching activities, and who regularly file reports with the university. These student “informers” also report faculty members’ views and opinions to the university’s Communist Party and administrative authorities. The academic fields are under close watch including programs of literature, history and philosophy.

Xu Songyan is currently a professor at SWU’s School of History and Culture, where he teaches ancient Greek and Roman history. Recent years have seen criticism of the promotion of ancient Greek culture in mainland China, as ancient Greece was known as the birthplace of western democracy. Communist Party chairman Xi Jinping once said that the “path to socialism with Chinese characteristics must be deeply rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese culture, that one should have a firm confidence in Chinese culture, and that one should not ‘always talk about Greece.’”

This is not the first time that a student “information officer” reported a professor. In May 2018, Zhai Juhong, a professor at the Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, was reported by a student informer and expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by the CCP Committee of the university. She was also dismissed from her position and disqualified as a teacher because of her comments on constitutional amendments, the state-owned enterprises and the institution of the People’s Congress.

Source: Ming Pao (Hong Kong), October 28, 2022
https://news.mingpao.com/pns/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B/article/20221028/s00013/1666895213286/

Briefings | | |   @CS Social Stability

China’s Central Bank to Establish a “Credit File” on Every Economic Entity

On October 10, the Credit Bureau of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, published an article entitled, “Building a Credit System that Covers the Whole Society.” The article claimed that China would establish a “credit file” on every economic entity.

The article pointed out that, as of the end of August 2022, the PBOC’s personal credit system had access to or information on 4,081 financial institutions and logged information on 1.15 billion natural persons. At the same time, the enterprise credit system had access to 3,811 financial institutions and included information on 98 million enterprises. The PBOC is also set to promote cross-field and cross-platform sharing of personal and corporate credit information.

China’s credit system has been criticized as being a mechanism for social control. According to the Chinese official media, the system will score a person or an entity based using four major areas: personal business activities, social behavior, administrative affairs and judicial records. Individuals who make sensitive comments on social media, for example, may have points deducted and may even be blacklisted.

Source: Radio Free Asia, October 11, 2022
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/3-10112022101217.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Chinese Consumers Slashed Spending on National Day Holiday

Well-known Taiwanese news site Anue recently reported that Mainland consumers slashed spending on travel and movies during the National Day holiday week as government Covid control measures led to fewer people going out. Data from the China National Railway Group shows that from September 28 to October 8, the number of railway passengers nationwide was estimated to be 68.5 million, mainly for family visits, short-distance travel and tourism. This represents a sharp drop of about 38 percent compared with the same period last year. According to statistics of Maoyan Entertainment, the Mainland movie box office has also fallen sharply, with sales reaching only 1.4 billion yuan (around US$197 million) as of October 7. This number is less than one-third of last year’s National Day holiday box office. It is also not comparable to the nearly RMB 4 billion (around US$562) in 2020. Weak spending data is a big bear for a pickup in Chinese consumption amid heightened risks to economic growth. The housing slump has yet to ease, global demand for Chinese goods has cooled, and the Chinese currency has depreciated. Still, economists say the chances of Beijing loosening its Zero-Covid policy in a short period of time remains low. Goldman Sachs expects that the government’s Covid control measures are expected to continue until the end of the second quarter of next year. Many economists have lowered their growth estimates on the Chinese economy.

Source: Anue, October 7, 2022
https://news.cnyes.com/news/id/4972972

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources Social Stability

Xinjiang Is Locked Down Due to 97 Infection Cases

The communist regime in China has been taking a strict “zero-COVID” policy and locks down any city where there are some infection cases. Last week it locked down Xinjiang. The authorities forced the 22 million people living there to stay at home – if they had not yet been put in “reeducation camps.” It also stopped running public transportation. It cancelled 97 percent of out-bound flights and 95 percent of in-bound flights at Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital city and largest city. It also cancelled all out-bound flights except two to Urumqi at Kashgar, Xinjiang’s second largest city.

On October 5, the authorities reported that it has only 97 infected cases.

Many analyses have pointed  out that the communist party’s COVID control and lockdown allows it to control the general public and practice precision control over its targeted people.

Source: VOA, October 6, 2022
https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-s-vast-xinjiang-hit-with-covid-19-travel-restrictions-20221006/6778421.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability