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Chinese censors took down a senior Communist Party official’s speech from the Internet after he predicted that Beijing would maintain the “zero-covid” policy “for the next five years.”
The false statement was published in Beijing Daily, the official publication of the Communist Party in China’s capital, by Cai Qi, the municipal party chief of Beijing.
Cai declared on Monday that “Beijing would resolutely implement COVID-19 pandemic control measures for the next five years and enforce the “zero-covid” policy to stop new imported cases from entering the country and domestic cases from rebounding.”
Cai, a close associate of Chinese President Xi Jinping, received a lot of anger on Chinese social media for his comment about “the next five years.”
One user posted on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, “I have to ponder if I should continue to stay in Beijing in the long run.”
Another commenter questioned what purpose it was to even be alive for the next five years.
CNN said that Beijing Daily left his other comments regarding pandemic measures in tact while removing the paragraph, referring to it as a “editing error” in an effort to quell an internet outcry.
Since then, Weibo has outlawed the hashtag “for the next five years” on its service.
Cai did speak extensively on the potential for maintaining zero-covid policies in the capital over the following five years, according to CNN, even though the entirety of the speech and the reported statement from Beijing Daily was false.
According to Cai, who was quoted by state media, the pandemic controls that would continue to be in place include regular PCR tests, stringent entry requirements, routine health inspections in residential areas and public places, as well as strict monitoring and testing for travellers coming into and going out of Beijing.
The country’s top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party, met in early May, and Xi reiterated his commitment to the zero-covid policy, directing officials and members of all spheres of society to follow the “decisions and plans” of the leadership.
Due to the stringent zero-covid policy, cities all throughout China have been put on full or partial lockdown for months, including Beijing and Shanghai, which has had a disastrous impact on economic activity and the labour market. CNN reported that in May, the jobless rate for people between the ages of 16 and 24 reached a record high of 18.4%.
China continues to impose whole city and community closures due to a small number of COVID incidents. Close contacts and all positive patients are quarantined by the authorities.
According to the nation’s National Health Commission, China recorded 23 domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases on Sunday, with four instances each reported by Beijing and Shanghai.
