Blank Sheets of Paper.

Special Edition: China News Items.

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1. By the time dusk had fallen on Wulumuqi Road yesterday, one of the most striking scenes of civil disobedience in mainland China in recent decades was under way. Onlookers described the gathering, at a busy crossroads in central Shanghai near to where a vigil to the victims of a fire in western China had taken place a day earlier, as unlike anything they had witnessed before. Many hundreds of people were congregated at any given point, with more stopping to watch or to walk by, flanked by hundreds of police officers. For several hours, officers struggled to contain a spontaneous expression of defiance against both the government’s coronavirus policies and its wider authority — an act that was mostly peaceful but frequently threatened to boil over. “We want everyone to hear our voice,” said one young man in attendance, adding the Covid-19 policies were “not scientific.” The gathering formed part of a nationwide wave of discontent against China’s strict zero-Covid policies, which have been energized by a growing sense of anger over the death of 10 people during a fire in the locked-down city of Urumqi in the Xinjiang region on Thursday. The tragedy, which the vigil on Saturday was marking, has been widely blamed on the restrictions — allegations that authorities denied. (Source: ft.com)

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2. Bloomberg.com:

The protests that erupted against China’s Covid Zero strategy represent one of the most significant challenges to Communist Party rule since the Tiananmen crisis more than 30 years ago. How Xi Jinping responds to it may end up being just as pivotal for the country’s future. 

From the capital Beijing to the far western outpost of Kashgar, Chinese residents frustrated by lockdowns and mass-testing campaigns have taken to the streets in recent days to urge change. In Shanghai -- stricken by a grueling two-month Covid clampdown earlier this year -- one crowd called for Xi to step down, defying the risk of a long prison term. Demonstrations ranged from a few people to street rallies of hundreds. 

Easing the outcry presents Xi with perhaps his biggest policy dilemma after a decade in power. A rapid exit from Covid Zero could fuel a surge in deaths, undercutting Xi’s efforts to cast China’s pandemic response as superior to that of the West. Cracking down on the protests, on the other hand, could build public sympathy for a cause that has already demonstrated nationwide support. 

There are few others for Xi to blame after a seemingly triumphant party congress last month, in which he secured a precedent-breaking third term in power and stacked the nation’s leadership with proven loyalists. Xi not only used the event to validate his Covid Zero approach, he appointed the man who oversaw the Shanghai lockdown, former top aide Li Qiang, to the party’s top No. 2 position. 

“Whatever happens, it is going to take the shine off the start of Xi’s third term,” said Charles Parton, a former British diplomat based in China and a fellow at the Council on Geostrategy and the Royal United Services Institute. “If he holds firm and uses force, and if it does not work too well, he looks fallible and destroys trust in himself and the party. That will build as the economy continues to suffer.” (Source: bloomberg.com)

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3. China’s most important state and party media reiterated the country’s commitment to its strict zero-Covid policy earlier today following a weekend in which rare protests burst out in cities across the country. The People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist party, published a front-page editorial, under the authorship of Zhong Yin, a pen name seen as indicating the party line on Covid policy. The article called for “improving the effectiveness of anti-epidemic work” and hailed the recently announced “20 measures” aimed at a partial easing of the zero-Covid policy. It added that eradicating outbreaks early was crucial to the success of the approach, underlining an important tenet of the zero-Covid approach. (Sources: en.people.cn, ft.com)

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