Protesters took to the streets in several parts of China, angered by the Chinese government's strict and ongoing Covid response measures.
Video / AP
ANALYSIS:
As Xi Jinping stays in power beyond the customary 10 years, he has not only made himself the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, but also a dictator-like figure.
But the de facto about-turn on the Zero Covid policy and the management of the funeral for former leader Jiang Zemin both reveal that he still feels insecure. For all the pretence that China is perfecting the management of Covid restrictions as Omicron is less lethal than earlier variants, few will fail to see the reality. What has changed is not the virus, but the outburst of public anger against a policy that Xi proclaimed as showcasing the superiority of China’s Leninist system.
People line up for their routine Covid-19 tests along a wall displaying the words 'Xi Jinping rule of law ideology learning ground' in Beijing. Photo / AP
Protests against Covid restrictions that included calls for Xi to step down clearly caught him by surprise. They triggered a three-dimensional response: suppress the protests, use digital technologies to intimidate further protests, and remove the Covid restrictions that caused unrest. They will keep Xi in power, but will not make people safer.
Xi’s insecurity was such that he could not risk holding a state funeral for Jiang Zemin, who died just after the protests were suppressed.
Unwilling to risk a physical event being hijacked by people to articulate their anger, Xi is “the people’s leader” who fears the people. Both events raise a question: will Xi’s massing of power make China a better place for its citizens and a better member of the international community?
By insisting on the Zero Covid approach long after others learned to live with the virus, and using enormous resources to quarantine people rather than vaccinate the old and build up the health service, he has put China in the worst possible situation. He imposed tighter restrictions for longer, and still exposes the most vulnerable to the virus.
This reflects policy mistakes that contrast sharply with the Chinese Communist Party’s rule before him. Under collective leadership, it avoided policy mistakes that triggered a challenge to its right to rule after the 1989 unrest. Such a challenge has now emerged, after Xi substituted collective wisdom with his own.
The Zero Covid policy, which also sets the economy back, is an extreme case - there are other examples. Xi has also sapped the vitality of China’s entrepreneurial and dynamic private sector. By unleashing “wolf-warrior diplomats”, he has turned a world supportive of China’s modernisation into one worried about its resurgence. By backing Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he has missed an opportunity for China to play global leader by brokering peace. The list goes on.
Medical workers in protective gear carry bags of Covid test samples taken from people working at a shopping mall after several Covid-19 cases were detected in that area of Beijing. Photo / AP
By making himself a dictator and forcing China to take a Sino-centric turn, Xi has removed the scope for technocrats to counsel against misguided policies, such as Zero Covid. His turn to nationalism has made China a more significant threat to global peace, particularly with his obsession with Taiwan. The Chinese people’s and the world’s best interests require the former to ensure Mr Xi does not become a Putin figure with substantially greater destructive power at hand.
· Steve Tsang is director of the China Institute at SOAS in London
