China is facing the largest protests they have had in years as people are losing patience with the country's zero covid strategy. CBS News. People in 10 cities called for Xi Jinping to resign. China has continued with lockdowns and other restrictions long after most countries have given up the strategy. The discontent was sparked when an apartment fire in Xinjiang killed 10 people. The people trapped in the fire were unable to escape due to being locked in their apartments. Video from the fire show people begging to be let out.
My Comment:
I mentioned yesterday on Twitter that I don't expect much from these protests. Much like Iran, China has faced waves of protests before and they have always put them down, sometimes with extreme force. Indeed, I remember the pre-Coronavirus protests in Hong Kong. When is the last time you thought about that?
China is limited in what they can do. They have gone all in on zero covid and if they lift it now the communist regime will lose face. Of course if they continue with their restrictions they will lose face as protests continue. And if they crack down they will also lose face as it will show they aren't completely in control.
Losing face is also an issue with lifting restrictions. Most Chinese people have not had the virus, if you believe China's numbers. It is very possible that if they do they will have a huge number of cases and a few deaths as well. It's also inconvenient that the vaccines they forced everyone to get don't really work so they lose face there.
It really is a lose-lose situation for China's government. If they crack down they could inspire rebellion and international condemnation. If they don't they could be hugely embarrassed both locally and internationally. The one thing the Chinese government can't admit is that they were wrong.
This fire happened at the worst time for the Chinese as the lockdowns were already unpopular. But now they are killing people locked into their apartments. Literally locking people into their homes was always an extreme fire hazard and I can't believe they haven't paid the price for it until now. The Chinese people aren't stupid. They see how the rest of the world has returned to normal and there hasn't been a huge wave of deaths with the current variants. But they all know enough to be afraid of burning to death while locked in their homes because of a virus that isn't that much of a threat for 99.99% of them.
Keep in mind that China's lockdowns have been dramatically more extreme than basically everywhere else in the world. Locking people in their apartments was not an exaggeration, it's what they have done for almost three years now. And people have hated every minute of it, and for good reason. People aren't meant to spend weeks or months at a time locked at home.
With all that being said, I again don't expect much from these protests. At least not yet. The Chinese people are upset, but they aren't furious. That could happen soon though. In addition to all the problems with the virus, China is also having major economic problems. Their real estate sector is showing signs of collapse and they are facing the same problems with energy and inflation as everyone else is. If China fails with the virus and also has an economic collapse? Then they might have finally lost the mandate of heaven...
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