Residents wearing masks line up for a COVID test in Beijing, Thursday. China’s capital, Beijing, has closed city parks and imposed other restrictions as the country grapples with a new wave of COVID-19 cases. Elsewhere, more than 5 million people were under lockdown on Friday in the southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou and the western megacity of Chongqing. The country reported 10,729 new cases on Friday, almost all of whom tested positive while showing no symptoms. With most of Beijing’s 21 million people being tested almost daily, another 118 new cases were reported in the huge city. Many schools in the city switched to online classes, hospitals reduced services and some shops and restaurants closed, with their staff quarantined. Videos on social media showed people in some areas protesting or fighting with police and health workers. Chinese leaders on Thursday vowed to respond to public frustration over the severe “zero COVID-19” strategy that has confined millions to their homes and severely disrupted the economy. No details were given other than a promise to release “exclusive people” who are in quarantine or have been barred for weeks from leaving cities where there are outbreaks. “Zero-COVID” has kept China’s infection rate relatively low, but it has weighed on the economy and disrupted life by closing schools, factories and shops or sealing off neighborhoods without warning. With the new increase in cases, a growing number of areas are closing businesses and imposing restrictions on movement. In order to enter office buildings, malls and other public places, people must show a negative result from a virus test taken as often as once a day. With economic growth weakening again after rebounding to 3.9 percent from a year earlier in the quarter ended in September, forecasters expected bolder steps toward opening up the country, whose borders remain largely closed. President and leader of the ruling Communist Party Xi Jinping is expected to make a rare trip abroad next week, but has given little sign of backing away from a policy the party has closely associated with social stability and the superiority of its politicians. That was maintained by the Politburo’s seven-member standing committee, which was appointed in October at a party congress that also extended Xi’s political rule by appointing him to a third five-year term as leader. It is packed with his loyalists, including Shanghai’s former party chief, who imposed a draconian lockdown that triggered food shortages, shuttered factories and confined millions to their homes for two months or more. People from cities with a single case in the past week are barred from visiting Beijing, while travelers from abroad must be quarantined in a hotel for seven to 10 days — if they are able to navigate the timely and opaque visa process. Business groups say this discourages foreign executives from visiting, which has prompted companies to shift investment plans to other countries. Visits by US officials and lawmakers charged with maintaining critical trade relations amid tensions over tariffs, Taiwan and human rights have all but ground to a halt. Last week, access to part of the central city of Zhengzhou, home to the world’s largest iPhone factory, was suspended after residents tested positive for the virus. Thousands of workers jumped fences and walked along highways to escape the factory run by Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group. Many said that colleagues who fell ill did not receive help and working conditions were unsafe. Also last week, people posted outraged comments on social media after a 3-year-old boy, whose compound in the northwest was under quarantine, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. His father complained that the guards enforcing the closure refused to help and tried to stop him as he rushed his son to a hospital. Despite these complaints, Chinese citizens have little say in policymaking under the one-party authoritarian system that maintains tight controls on the media and public protests. Speculation over when the measures will be eased has centered on whether the government is willing to import or domestically produce more effective vaccines, with the elderly population remaining particularly vulnerable. That could happen as soon as next spring, when a new slate of officials is due to be appointed under Xi’s continued leadership. Or, the restrictions could persist much longer if the government continues to reject the concept of living to learn with a relatively low level of cases causing far fewer hospitalizations and deaths than when the pandemic was at its peak.
