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While hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets this Sunday to challenge the “zero Covid” policy, the position of the Chinese government appears to be weakened.
This Sunday, November 27, hundreds of people demonstrated in Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan to protest against the “zero Covid” policy. These protests follow the death of a dozen people, trapped in a residential building in Urumqi which caught fire.
A deadly fire ignites the powder
According to the New China agency, the fire spread within a residential building in Urumqi, in northwestern China.
According to comments from Internet users, published on social networks, the toll could have been much lower if the containment measures to which the burned building was subject had not hindered the intervention of the firefighters.
“When a neighborhood is cordoned off [à cause de la quarantaine]barriers are installed everywhere, and videos show that the fire trucks could not approach the building which was burning“, explains to our colleagues from France info Marie Holzman, sinologist and president of the association Solidarité Chine.
In total, the fire killed 10 people and endangered the lives of 9 others.
Towards a denial of the zero Covid policy?
While in Shanghai, the “Xi Jinping, resign!” burst among the protesters, and that in Jiangsu the participants brandish sheets of white paper, the experts wonder.
Will the population’s fed up with the ‘zero Covid’ strategy push the government to change its position?
Nothing is less certain, according to Valérie Niquet, Asia specialist at the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS).
“SIf the government suddenly lifts its ‘zero Covid’ policy, the health consequences will be significant. The Chinese population is not well vaccinated“. Next, “the Chinese health system is not able to absorb a large number of patients from a population that is not immune.”
And for good reason: the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine Sinovac was strongly questioned last winter. According to a study conducted by the University of Hong Kong, it would only be 35% effective (with two doses). A real public health problem, when we know that China has 1 billion 200 million vaccinated people… and that Sinovac has delivered more than 800 million doses to 44 countries.
An “ineffective and untenable” strategy
For Dr. Kierzek, the many containment measures relating to the zero Covid strategy are completely sterile.
“The Chinese zero Covid strategy is ineffective and untenable for the population. We cannot control the spread of Covid-19; the virus is far too transmissible. It is therefore a measure that is more political than scientific, because the benefit/risk balance is unbalanced”.