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China’s top leaders warned against questioning Xi Jinping’s Covid Zero strategy, striking a more defensive tone as pressure builds to relax virus curbs and protect the economic growth that has long been a source of Communist Party strength.
The Politburo’s supreme seven-member Standing Committee pledged Thursday during a meeting led by Xi to “fight against any speech that distorts, questions or rejects our country’s Covid-control policy,” state broadcaster China Central Television said. The body reaffirmed its support for the lockdown-dependent approach, noting that China has been continuously calibrating measures since the first outbreak two years ago in Wuhan.
“Our pandemic prevention-and-control strategy is determined by the party’s nature and principles,” the seven-member committee said, according to CCTV. “Our policy can stand the test of history, and our measures are scientific and effective.”
The Standing Committee’s comments came after White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said China’s virus lockdowns were unlikely to be successful in the long term. At home, too, some have begun to question whether the need to contain the virus justified the impact of lockdowns and resulting supply chain disruptions, after the nation’s economic activity contracted sharply in April.
One of the best known defenders of China’s policies, former Global Times Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin, published and then soon deleted a WeChat post earlier Thursday suggesting that the economic costs of containing the virus shouldn’t exceed the public-health benefits. The national government should “either make low-cost containment work or tell the truth to the entire Chinese society” if the virus situation worsens in the capital, Hu said.
More at https://shrtcô.de/bZ8JZ8
The Politburo’s supreme seven-member Standing Committee pledged Thursday during a meeting led by Xi to “fight against any speech that distorts, questions or rejects our country’s Covid-control policy,” state broadcaster China Central Television said. The body reaffirmed its support for the lockdown-dependent approach, noting that China has been continuously calibrating measures since the first outbreak two years ago in Wuhan.
“Our pandemic prevention-and-control strategy is determined by the party’s nature and principles,” the seven-member committee said, according to CCTV. “Our policy can stand the test of history, and our measures are scientific and effective.”
The Standing Committee’s comments came after White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said China’s virus lockdowns were unlikely to be successful in the long term. At home, too, some have begun to question whether the need to contain the virus justified the impact of lockdowns and resulting supply chain disruptions, after the nation’s economic activity contracted sharply in April.
One of the best known defenders of China’s policies, former Global Times Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin, published and then soon deleted a WeChat post earlier Thursday suggesting that the economic costs of containing the virus shouldn’t exceed the public-health benefits. The national government should “either make low-cost containment work or tell the truth to the entire Chinese society” if the virus situation worsens in the capital, Hu said.
More at https://shrtcô.de/bZ8JZ8