One of China’s top epidemiologists surfaced in an interview on Sunday warning that “it is not yet the time” to lift Chinese coronavirus civil rights restrictions fully, following weeks of Communist Party announcements that its brutal lockdown measures would soon “ease.”
China spent most of 2022 being one of the last remaining countries to lock down entire cities and force thousands into unsanitary quarantine camps as a way of reducing the spread of Chinese coronavirus, rather than easing restrictions in light of the existence of a variety of antiviral treatments and vaccination products since about mid-2021. The lockdowns have caused mass death – via starvation, suicide, and lack of basic medical care – and fueled an ongoing wave of protests in the country’s largest cities that peaked in late November.
The Communist Party abruptly announced in the aftermath of hundreds taking the streets in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and other large cities in late November that its scientists had just discovered that the omicron variant of Chinese coronavirus, which is currently dominant in most of the world, caused less severe disease than previous iterations – a conclusion that scientists elsewhere in the world had reached months ago. The communist regime then announced it would “optimize” its lockdown measures to allow those who test positive but present with mild or no symptoms to avoid being imprisoned in quarantine camps. Some of the country’s large cities have also abandoned demanding negative coronavirus tests to use public transport or enter groceries and other public spaces.
BEIJING, CHINA – DECEMBER 09: Epidemic control workers wear PPE as they ride on the back of a three wheeler on their way to disinfect an epidemic area on December 9, 2022 in Beijing, China. As part of a 10 point directive, China’s government announced Wednesday that people with COVID-19 who have mild or no symptoms will be permitted to quarantine at home instead of at a government facility, testings requirements are reduced, people are permitted to buy over the counter medications, and local officials can no longer lock down entire neighbourhoods or cities, a major shift in its zero COVID policy. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Former Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) epidemiologist Zeng Guang warned on Sunday, however, that the removal of China’s public health restrictions was not necessarily guaranteed to be permanent, and the time to return to a pre-2019 normal had not yet arrived, he believed. Zeng told the state-run Global Times that fully restoring daily life in China would require public health experts to reclassify the management of the disease from “Class A,” which mandates extreme civil rights restrictions, to “Class B.” Zeng noted, however, that Chinese coronavirus is technically a “Class B” disease, anyway, but the Communist Party had decided to manage it on par with diseases such as bubonic plague.
“The expert also said that even downgrading to Class B does not guarantee that people can return to pre-pandemic normalcy,” the Global Times continued. “Only after the country has absorbed the shocks from the virus, and the curve is flattened and [Chinese coronavirus] be treated as flu.”
“When no case numbers are reported each day and the focus is on treatment of severe cases, can management of [Chinese coronavirus] be further downgraded to Class C, and then people can have their normal lives back, Zeng said,” the state publication concluded.
The Global Times acknowledged that, for the first time in nearly three years, ” the public seems to see flicker [sic] of hope of returning to pre-pandemic life,” but Zeng warned that they should not expect major changes in the near future.
“Zeng believes that although the [Chinese coronavirus] restrictive measures are being relaxed, and the society is enjoying more freedoms, it is not yet the time to return back to normal, as caseloads are soaring,” it observed.
Zhong Nanshan, a Chinese scientist often referred to as China’s “Dr. Fauci” for his public profile, also spoke up this weekend, predicting that “normal” life may return to China by March, but refusing to make his prediction decisively.
“I was asked when our lives can return to where we were in 2019 [before Covid broke out]. My view is that in the first half of next year after March,” Zhong told the state news outlet Xinhua, according to the South China Morning Post. “Although I can’t guarantee it, the trend says it should be around that time.”
Zhong also called being infected with the omicron variant of Chinese coronavirus “equivalent to getting a [Chinese coronavirus] vaccination” and strongly discouraged Chinese people from hoarding fever and cold medications or attempting to use painkillers to prevent infection, which has resulted in a rise of diagnosed liver disease.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – 2022/12/05: Flowers and candles seen laid on the vigil corner in memory of the tragedy where 10 were killed last week in Urumqi due to the COVID lockdown policy in China during the demonstration outside the Chinese Embassy in London. Chinese students who are currently studying in London gathered at the Chinese Embassy in London to protest against the lockdown policy in China. A massive wave of protests broke out in China last week since 10 people were killed in a Urumqi in the Northwest region of China due to the inhumane COVID lockdown policy. (Photo by Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Zhong, who has a larger international profile than other scientists discussing China’s policies in public, appears more optimistic than those quoted in statements over the weekend. Another expert from Peking University, for example, Wang Guangfa, emphasized to the Global Times on Sunday that any easing restrictions was not the same as “lying flat,” the derogatory term the Chinese government uses for countries like the United States that have mostly stopped violating citizens’ rights in the name of stopping infections.
“Wang said that relaxation does not equal to lying flat, as the government now shifted its focus on medical resources, which aims not to let the peak number overwhelm the medical system when the exit wave emerges,” the Global Times relayed. “Such strategy, and the fact that China waited until Omicron had become far less lethal, guarantees that China will exit from the pandemic in a more orderly fashion than what happened in the West, Wang said.”
No public experts have discussed easing the use of sanitary masks in public. Zhong, in particular, was quoted as stressing the alleged need to wear them as lockdowns and quarantine internments decreased.
The Communist Party is combining this messaging with propaganda attacking the West, where the past month’s protests and restriction modifications have been taken as part of China’s larger pattern of human rights abuses. The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, attacked Western observers who noted that the change in policy was abrupt and appeared to be a direct response to mounting protests.
“They tried to use all kinds of reasoning and models to prove that China’s ‘optimizing’ at this time – in their words, ‘a U-turn’ – is another mistake. They claimed China’s decision was based ‘on impulse’ and was made ‘with no preparation,'” the People’s Daily dismissed, “which ‘risks 1 million [Chinese coronavirus] deaths in ‘winter wave’.”
“To these biased journalists, strict prevention and control measures are wrong. Adjustments and optimizations are also wrong,” the editorial continued. “So one wonders what is right in terms of their thinking? Maybe for them, nothing is right.”
The People’s Daily concluded that “entrenched arrogance and prejudice” against Chinese people in the West was responsible for any skepticism about the Communist Party’s lockdown policies.
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