of China The ruling Communist Party has vowed to “firmly crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces” after the biggest street demonstrations in decades.virus Sanctions.
The statement from the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, issued late Tuesday, comes amid a massive show of force by security services to prevent a repeat of the weekend’s protests in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and several other cities.
China protests: Hundreds demand Xi’s resignation at rallies across US
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Although it did not directly address the protest, the statement was a reminder of the party’s determination to enforce its rule.
Hundreds of SUVs, vans and armored vehicles with flashing lights lined the city’s streets on Wednesday, while police and paramilitary forces conducted random ID checks and searched people’s mobile phones for photos, banned apps or other possible evidence that they attended the demonstrations. had attended.
The number of people detained in the demonstrations and follow-up police actions is not known.
The commission statement, issued after an extended session on Monday chaired by its chief Chen Wenqing, a member of the party’s 24-member politburo, said the purpose of the meeting was to review the results of October’s 20th party congress. Is.
In that event, Xi earned himself a third five-year term as general secretary, potentially making him China’s leader for life, while stacking key bodies with loyalists and quashing dissenting voices. .
“The meeting emphasized that political and legal organs should take effective measures? resolutely safeguards national security and social stability, ”the statement said.
“We must completely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by forces hostile to law, completely crack down on illegal and criminal acts that disrupt social order, and effectively maintain overall social stability, It said.
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Yet, less than a month after securing his political future and unrivaled dominance, Xi, who has indicated he favors regime stability above all else, faces his biggest public challenge yet. Huh.
He and the party have yet to directly address the unrest, which has spread to college campuses and the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong, as well as sparking sympathetic protests abroad.
Most of the protesters turned their attention to the “zero-COVID” policy, which has placed millions of people under lockdown and quarantine, limiting their access to food and medicine while severely restricting travel and ravaging the economy. Have given. Many mocked the government’s ever-changing line of reasoning, with claims that “hostile outside forces” were fueling the wave of anger.
Yet voices calling for greater freedom and democracy and to remove speech for Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, as well as the party he leads, are considered subversive and punishable with long prison sentences. Is. Some held up blank pieces of white paper to demonstrate their lack of free speech rights.
A weekend of protests was sparked after a Nov. 24 fire in China’s far west killed at least 10 people, prompting angry online questions about whether firefighters or victims trying to escape should be protected against anti-virus. Virus was blocked by controls.
Authorities eased some controls and announced a new effort to vaccinate vulnerable groups after the demonstrations, but said they would stick to a “zero-Covid” strategy.
The party last month promised to reduce disruptions, but a sharp rise in infections has prompted party workers to come under intense pressure to tighten controls in an effort to contain the outbreak. The National Health Commission on Wednesday reported the detection of 37,612 cases in the last 24 hours, while the death toll remained unchanged at 5,233.
Beijing’s Tsinghua University, where students protested over the weekend, and other schools in the capital and the southern province of Guangdong sent students home in an apparent attempt to ease tensions. Chinese leaders are wary of universities, which have been centers of activism, including the Tiananmen protests.
It appears that the police are trying to keep their actions out of sight, possibly to avoid encouraging others by drawing attention to the scale of the protests. Videos and posts on Chinese social media about the protests were removed by the party’s vast online censorship apparatus.
“Zero COVID” has helped keep case numbers low compared to the United States and other major countries, but global health experts, including the head of the World Health Organization, say it is unsustainable. China called the comment irresponsible.
A man swabs his throat for a COVID-19 test at a testing site near last weekend’s protest site in Beijing, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022.
AP Photo/Andy Wong
The head of the International Monetary Fund told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday that Beijing needed to make its approach “very targeted” to ease economic disruption.
However, economists and health experts have warned that Beijing may not ease controls that keep most travelers out of China until millions of older people are vaccinated. They say this means “zero COVID” may not end up for another year.
On Wednesday, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said the sanctions were, among other things, making it impossible for US diplomats to visit US prisoners held in China, as mandated by international treaty. Due to the lack of commercial airline routes in the country, the embassy has to use monthly charter flights to transport its personnel in and out.
“Covid is literally dominating every aspect of life”, he said in an online discussion with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
On the protests, Burns said the embassy was watching their progress and the government’s response, but added, “We believe the Chinese people have a right to protest peacefully.”
“He has the right to make his views known. They have the right to be heard. It is a fundamental right across the world. it must be. And that right should not be hindered, and it should not be interfered with,” he said.
Burns also cited instances of foreign journalists covering the protests being harassed and detained by Chinese police.
“We support freedom of the press as well as freedom of expression,” he said.
Asked about foreign expressions of support for the protesters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian defended China’s approach to dealing with COVID-19 and said other countries should mind their own business.
“We hope they will put the voice and interests of their people first, instead of pointing fingers at others,” Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing.