The Obdurate Autocratic Failings of the Chinese Communist Party on Zero-COVID

"The party and the people are trying to seek a new equilibrium."

"There will be some intsability in the process."

"Without the clear signal of party leader divisions -- I would expect this kind of protest might not last very log."

"[It is] unimaginable [that Xi would back down, and the party is experienced in handling protests]."

Hung Ho-fung, Johns Hopkins University

"[The West's vaccines offer] a major solution [to China's COVID problems."

"[According to health experts zero-COVID is unlikely to be achieved until vaccine uptake among China's elderly sees an improvement]."

"[Efforts are underway to increase coverage but] it's unlikely things will get better for the next  half of the new year."

Xi Chen, associate professor, Yale University

A protester is arrested by police in Shanghai on Sunday night. HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/AFP via Getty Image

 

Local authorities in China, making no allusion to credit the mass protests springing up all over China against the crude lockup methods being employed to stem the rising tide of COVID-19 outbreaks, have begun to ease imposed restrictions reflecting the state's zero-COVID mandate. In Beijing, the city government announced it plans to phase out gating to block access to apartment compounds where infections are diagnosed.

Manufacturing and trade centre Guangzhou, the current hot-spot in the latest wave of infections, announced that selected residents no longer will be required to undergo mass testing. The stringent measures originally in place to minimize deaths at the same time that other countries suffered magnitudes of infections and deaths no longer has the silent consent of the Chinese population.

According to the Chinese Communist Party ruling China, anti-coronavirus measures must continue "targeted and precise", while at the same time the least possible disruption should be caused to people's lives; local officials threatened with their jobs or similar punishments should outbreaks occur, codify their own strategies to match the central government's zero-COVID command-and-control demands.

Their response has been the imposition of quarantines and allied restrictions exceeding what the central government recommends. Hardships imposed on the population appear to be of no concern to the Xi administration, beyond the anodyne recommendations that lockdowns not cause community unrest. Millions of people in Shanghai were placed under strict lockdown in the spring, resulting in food scarcity and access to medical care being restricted.

Despite the ensuing turmoil, Xi loyalist, the city's party secretary, saw appointment to the No.2 position of the Communist Party. On the past weekend, protests were so sweeping in numbers and inclusivity many from among the educated urban middle class of the ethnic Han majority were in full vocal attendance. This is the group the ruling party relies upon to recognize a post-Tiananmen agreement that a better quality of life would accompany autocratic rule.

Following a fire on Thursday that killed at least ten people living in an apartment building in the city of Urumqi, where residents have been locked into their homes for four months, furious protests erupted particularly when the city council suggested those that died were insufficiently motivated to save themselves, prompting an avalanche of angry online questions whether firefighters or people attempting to escape the fire were blocked by locked doors or similar pandemic restrictions.

Foreign governments have suggested to Beijing that it use vaccines developed in the West to improve protection for its people, and once more effective vaccines are widely used the government could reconsider and ratchet back the draconian restrictions of the current zero-COVID policy. Beijing has consistently refused to import the mRNA-based more highly successful vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, insisting its own home-grown vaccines are effective.

 

They are not, however. Moreover, the most vulnerable in the population, the elderly, have not received vaccinations in numbers that should satisfy any responsible government. Analysis indicates that millions of unprotected people could perish under current circumstances should zero-COVID be abandoned. The acceptance of Western vaccinations could turn that scenario around.

"Europe and Germany have had very good experience with administering mRNA vaccinations", stated Steffen Hebestreit, adding that Olaf Scholz had "made this clear" to Chinese officials during a visit by the German chancellor to China. China is steadfast in its reliance on its own vaccines based on older technology, failing to offer the same protection as the West's vaccines against severe disease and death.

"'Zero COVID' [was] supposed to demonstrate the superiority of the 'Chinese model', but ended up demonstrating the risk that when authoritarian regimes make mistakes, those mistakes can be colossal."

"But I think the regime has backed itself into a corner and has no way to  yield. It has lots of force, and if necessary, it will use it."

Andrew Nathan, Chinese politics specialist, Columbia University

Protesters are fed up with lockdowns, but their government is not budging

Confronting China's Dismal Human Rights Record

"We firmly oppose that [a motion in Canada's Parliament] because it runs counter to the facts. And it's like, you know, interfering in our domestic affairs."

"There's nothing like genocide happening in Xinjiang at all."

"I think we respect your values. But I think our core values should be: respect facts. And to stop spreading disinformation or even rumours."

Cong Peiwu, Chinese Ambassador to Canada 

"[The motion and vote to follow are a requirement, to send a] clear and unequivocal signal that we will stand up for human rights and the dignity of human rights, even if it means sacrificing some economic opportunity."

Leader of the Official Opposition, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole

"There is no question there have been tremendous human rights abuses coming out of Xinjiang. [However, use of the word must be] properly justified and demonstrated so as not to weaken the application of 'genocide' in situations in the past."

"[We -- Liberal caucus -- have] taken careful note of conclusions drawn by experts around the world, including findings of crimes against humanity and genocide."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

MPs pass motion declaring genocide against Uighurs in China, despite cabinet abstentions

 

The targeted brutality by China against Tibetans refusing to surrender their sovereignty to a grasping hegemonic China is well enough known in the public sphere. China's threats toward its regional neighbours in its ambitions to dominate and acquire disputed territories along with geographic areas known to be exclusive to China's neighbours' sovereignty has created an aura of anger and trepidation in relation to Beijing's aggressive threats against any who dispute its regional command.

The world has focused on the plight of Turkic Muslim Uyghurs in a Chinese province that was once the homeland of the Uyghurs until it was swallowed into the maw of the People's Republic of China. The Chinese superpower's persecution of the Uyghurs is no secret; their human rights have been unmercifully trampled; forced sterilizations, culture and language suppression, interference in their religious devotion, and of course the 're-education' formula of mind control.

The claim for genocide in describing the plight of a people coerced by force into slave labour, who cannot live free lives because the dominant occupying power considers them to be 'terrorists' in need of de-escalation, to remake them into model Chinese citizens who will nevermore agitate for separation, appears to fall into the guidelines of the UN definition of genocide. A Canadian House of Commons subcommittee documented the human rights abuses leading to the charge of genocide. 

However, Canada's prime minister, who professes to be extremely sensitive about the use of the word 'genocide' to describe Beijing's campaign against the Xinjiang Uyghurs is a craven act of complicity. No such demurrals were expressed when a commissioned report led by a First Nations judge proclaimed that Canada committed 'genocide' against its aboriginal peoples, and it pleased the prime minister to assent to that language in describing Canada.

Under the Liberal Party of Canada a love affair with China has long since taken root, gripped by the potential for trade and investment and business opportunities with the nation with the largest population numbers on Earth. Under this current Liberal government whose ambition was driven to sign a free trade agreement with the Chinese Communist Party, that commitment to ingratiate Canada with the CCP flowered, and for Justin Trudeau, the heir of his father's prime ministerial decision to open full diplomatic ties with post-revolutionary China, no human rights abuses on China's part are too egregious to interfere with his admiration for the power of a totalitarian government.

China's ambassador to Canada knows full well that Beijing's long arm and persuasive funding has gained it the privilege of having its administrative abuses overlooked in favour of trade opportunities. He knows that China instills both awe and fear in the minds of other countries' political heads. He knows that it is Beijing that is interfering in Canada by harassing Chinese-Canadians who fail to support mainland China and decry its takeover of Hong Kong and threats toward Taiwan. Chinese investment in Canadian universities installing its Confucious Institutes to propagandize for China are sinister intrusions.

No, Beijing does not 'respect Canadian values'; it undermines them whenever and however it can. And its high degree of success in presenting itself as a partner in science, education, culture, business and politics, is a crude and effective choreograph undermining Canadian values. Industrial and military espionage is what motivates China. Its diplomatic missions worldwide with their links to the Chinese military and the CCP's agenda are skilled in what they are trained to do. They act as shills for state-linked corporations in communications, pharmacology and advanced technology.

So today, when the vote was cast in Canada's Parliament, it was overwhelming. Support for the recognition of China's persecution of the Uyghurs (Falon Gong, Tibetans, Christians aside) passed unanimously. With the entire Liberal cabinet of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau abstaining. Establishing beyond doubt that the oft-declared 'values' of this government supportive of human rights is a front for a screen of 'progressive' values. Where Justin Trudeau can see fit to criticize the democracy of India's Narendra Modi for his dispute with farmers with an underlying tone of support for Sikh Khalistanis, yet remain loyal to Communist China's agenda of suppressing Uyghur 'terrorism'.

Protesters gather outside the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Monday, February 22, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld