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Communist China Doubles Down On Impossible ‘Zero Covid’ Benchmark To Control Citizens With Brutal Lockdowns
Federalist.com ^ | May 16, 2022 | Shawn Fleetwood

Posted on 05/16/2022 2:24:11 PM PDT by Kaslin

Since the CCP initiated its ‘Zero Covid’ policy several months ago, millions of Chinese civilians have endured immense suffering.

China’s ruling communist party (CCP) recently announced it is doubling down on its “Zero Covid” strategy, wherein it is forcibly locking down and oppressing millions of Chinese citizens with the ostensible goal of completely stamping out the respiratory virus.

A little over a week ago, members of the CCP’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee held a meeting in which party leadership reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining the government’s current lockdown policies in major cities like Shanghai. According to a report from the China Media Project, a Chinese news watchdog, a readout of the meeting published in the state-run People’s Daily “is dominated by words like ‘persistence’ and ‘unshakeable'” to describe the party’s devotion to preventing new Covid cases in the nation.

“The resolve to ‘persist’ in the dynamic zero approach comes also with the message that dissent over the policy will not be tolerated,” the China Media Project report added. “The readout notes that the Party must ‘resolutely struggle against all distortions, doubts and denials of our epidemic prevention policy.'”

Since the CCP reinitiated its “Zero Covid” policy several months ago, millions of Chinese civilians have endured immense suffering. As noted by Federalist senior contributor Helen Raleigh, “[R]esidents have been locked inside their apartments like animals, and some even have metal barriers and fences outside their homes,” with “[o]ne foreigner in Shanghai [telling] the BBC, ‘No one can get out, and I feel helpless.'”

Reports of “food shortages, lack of access to medical care,” and “overcrowded quarantine centers” have also become widespread in recent months.

While speaking with The Federalist, President of the Population Research Institute Steven Mosher noted that the CCP’s brutal tactics are beginning to generate pockets of resistance among Chinese citizens, with “food riots breaking out in different cities … in response to the continued lockdowns.”

“Also, and far more worrisome to the CCP leadership, there have been worker riots in a number of factories,” he said. “This is in response to the party’s decision to reopen the factories, but confine the workers to its premises, meaning that they work 12-hour shifts, then are forced to eat and sleep on the factory premises in primitive conditions.”

While such rebellious acts may seem promising, Mosher added that the current pushback among Chinese citizens has not reached a level that threatens “the continued rule of the CCP.”

Dr. Elizabeth Larus, an academic scholar on Chinese affairs and the president of E. Larus Consulting LLC, expressed similar sentiments. While speaking with The Federalist, Larus said that “the Chinese people are limited in their ability to push back” against the government, with the state stifling “criticism of the ‘Zero Covid’ policy with censorship, threats, and arrests.”

“Many Chinese will not speak out because they do not want to damage their Social Credit Scores or be forced into quarantine or detention,” she said. “There is zero chance that there will be public demonstrations against the central government. If discontent escalates further, the central government will throw local government officials under the bus. The central government will blame local government officials for being overly zealous. This strategy protects the CCP leadership.”

Larus went on to predict that dictator Xi Jinping will not drop the government’s “Zero Covid” policies before the CCP’s upcoming National Party Congress this October, noting how Xi “has staked his reputation and his legacy on keeping Covid fatalities to a minimum.”

“Xi must keep Covid deaths low to demonstrate that China’s centralized system of government is superior to Western democracy,” she said. “There is no way that he will jeopardize that legacy by relaxing the ‘Zero Covid’ strategy.”

Xi is expected to secure a third term as leader of the CCP at the Party Congress this fall, marking an extremely rare occurrence in the party’s decades-long history.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: ccp; ccppolitburo; china; xijinpin; zerocovid

1 posted on 05/16/2022 2:24:11 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

China is going through a civil war within the CCP. I suspect that the Shanghai faction is a target of Xi Jinping.

the 20th Party Congress is coming in October, and now is when the wrangling takes place for who will get exactly what position. Many in the CCP do not like the idea that Xi Jinping has made himself “emperor” for life.


2 posted on 05/16/2022 2:33:25 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: Kaslin

Someone needs to let the Communist Chinese in on a little secret:

The way to eliminate Covid cases is to stop the testing, stop enabling Big Pharma to make a killing on fake vaccines, and stop paying hospitals for assigning Covid as cause of death.

Then everybody could go back to calling it what it is - another cold.


3 posted on 05/16/2022 2:42:53 PM PDT by enumerated
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To: All

https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/ukdyfo/police_tie_up_man_and_take_him_to_quarantine_in/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share


4 posted on 05/16/2022 2:43:13 PM PDT by beaversmom
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To: Kaslin

5 posted on 05/16/2022 2:49:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin ((The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.))
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To: Kaslin

The question is - Do they know something about this virus that nobody else knows? These measures appear completely irrational.


6 posted on 05/16/2022 2:59:22 PM PDT by week 71
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To: enumerated

It’s not about Covid. It’s about controlling Shanghai


7 posted on 05/16/2022 3:09:08 PM PDT by HollyB
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To: Kaslin

one day... we will wake up to news that the citizens of one of these countries have risen up and started slaughtering the old rulers.

I am surprized they didn’t kill all the old commies after the soviet union fell!


8 posted on 05/16/2022 3:10:46 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009
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To: HollyB

Agreed


9 posted on 05/16/2022 3:20:28 PM PDT by enumerated
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To: BenLurkin

One really clueless mother fletcher.

People seem lulled to sleep about what the Chinese committees
are capable of.

There’s nothing about the Chinese government to swoon over.

It’s as bad as anything on earth, and recent events in
Shangai have gone barely noticed by many, because the media
won’t cover it for what it is.


10 posted on 05/16/2022 3:23:34 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance the flag of the U S of A, and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands.)
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To: PGR88

Do they know something about the virus we don’t? Odd.


11 posted on 05/16/2022 3:24:52 PM PDT by wgmalabama (We will find out if the Vac or virus risk was the correct choice -can put the truth above narrative )
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To: PGR88

““Xi must keep Covid deaths low to demonstrate that China’s centralized system of government is superior to Western democracy,” “

No one will know the truth anyway, as hundreds of thousands or millions will die or be killed, to get to their ‘Zero Covid’ Benchmark.


12 posted on 05/16/2022 3:36:20 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Kaslin

Second amendment and the individual states’ police powers are a check on central government abuses.


13 posted on 05/16/2022 3:59:01 PM PDT by grumpygresh (Civil disobedience by non-compliance; jury and state nullification. )
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To: Kaslin

This is what was most disturbing about how Australia went
postal over COVID.

They gave China the cover they needed to be even more brutal.

It would be interesting to know how many Chinese lives were
lost because Australia’s leadership couldn’t keep itself in
check.


14 posted on 05/16/2022 4:11:03 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance the flag of the U S of A, and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands.)
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To: Kaslin

They are imitating the Dems.


15 posted on 05/16/2022 4:46:48 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: wgmalabama

“Do they know something about the virus we don’t? Odd.”

Billy Gates has been giggling about something lately.


16 posted on 05/16/2022 4:51:38 PM PDT by dljordan
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To: dljordan

Might have some long term consequences. They want us dead and China is willing to kill their economy to keep virus minimum. Hummmm. Interesting choices.


17 posted on 05/16/2022 6:51:27 PM PDT by wgmalabama (We will find out if the Vac or virus risk was the correct choice -can put the truth above narrative )
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