Ahead of a vital meeting of the ruling Communist Party, people across China will continue to bear the brunt of the strict zero COVID policy as Xi is set to begin a third five-year term next month as a result of which lockdowns are expected to stay in place throughout.
As numerous people have been put under weeks-long coronavirus lockdowns, appeals for food and medical care are also spreading across China ahead of the 20th National Chinese Communist Party Congress, as the citizens are facing the authoritarian government’s unending restrictions, The Washington Post reported.
As per the report by The Washington Post, the Chinese lockdowns are taking an enormous economic and psychological toll on the population as pandemic controls have disrupted the daily lives of people in China.
Moreover, the economic hardship of the lockdowns has drawn widespread complaints from Chinese citizens who are unable to work and are surviving on dwindling savings.
Meanwhile, China’s official case count remains minuscule, with only 949 locally transmitted cases reported nationwide on Sunday, in a population of 1.4 billion however the strict lockdowns in the country continue to remain in place, reported The Washington Post.
Recently in southwestern Guiyang, which began a lockdown in parts of the city on September 5, several residents reported online on Monday that they were struggling to secure food.
“All supermarkets and small stores where you can buy groceries are closed,” one wrote on Weibo. “The online shopping platforms designated by the government are also having shortages and you cannot buy stuff or receive deliveries.”
Under Xi Jinping’s strict covid policy, in cities like Beijing, residents obtain a negative coronavirus test result every three days to be able to enter office buildings, restaurants and other public spaces, according to the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, China’s Xinjiang province is hit with limited options due to a gruelling and week-long COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The residents have time and again called for help over limited food, difficulty getting medicines and drastic shortages of sanitary pads for women.
People in the city of 600,000 have been commanded to stay in their homes since early August, forcing many to rely largely on neighbourhood officials to deliver supplies.
Some of the residents said that food deliveries had been reduced to a monotonous diet of rice, naan or instant noodles. Another city with a 21-million population, Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, is also under lockdown after around 500 cases were reported last week.
More than 6 million cases of COVID-19 infection have been registered since the beginning of the pandemic in mainland China, with 24,806 related deaths.
Parts of China have reported a sudden surge in the COVID-19 virus and the outbreak of the fifth wave has forced the citizens to once again face the authoritarian government’s unending restrictions. The recurring outbreak of rampant infection in the country, despite China’s strong measures, speaks of the failure of Xi Jinping’s so-called “zero-COVID policy” which has upended daily life and dealt a heavy blow to the slowing economy.