China digs in on zero-Covid strategy despite public’s frustrations

BEIJING: China must press ahead with its "magic weapon" zero-Covid strategy, health officials said on Friday, despite mounting economic costs and more signs of public frustration in locked-down Shanghai.

The government has repeatedly backed its policy of stamping out infections swiftly with lockdowns and mass testing, but it has been severely challenged by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Several major cities have been fully or partially sealed off this year, including Shanghai, where 25 million residents have been almost completely locked down for weeks.

China’s virus policy is a "magic weapon for preventing and controlling the pandemic", Li Bin, deputy director of the National Health Commission (NHC), told reporters on Friday.

"If we relax... and let the virus spread, a big number of people will be infected." But the strategy has led to economic pain and disruptions, especially snarled supply chains, with Shanghai struggling to provide fresh food to those confined at home and patients reporting trouble accessing non-Covid medical care.

More signs emerged on Thursday of public anger and frustration with the restrictions in the metropolis. Videos posted on social media showed residents banging on pots in their homes on Thursday night, in an apparent response to calls for protest against the lockdown.

One resident who declined to be identified said she joined a protest that involved banging on pots after hearing such noises in her neighbourhood. "I see a lot of similar videos from different people living in different districts," she told AFP.

As of Friday, content about such protests appeared to have been censored and could not be found on Chinese social media platforms such as Douyin and the Twitter-like Weibo. Weibo said it was "taking care" of hundreds of accounts each day that were breaking content rules related to the Shanghai outbreak.

On Thursday, it "checked and cleared" -- usually a euphemism for deletion -- more than 8,000 posts, according to Weibo’s official moderation page. The latest videos follow similar footage from earlier this month showing residents scuffling with hazmat-suited police, and others bursting through barricades demanding food.