As China Brags About Its Covid Success, Protest Against Preventive Measures Breaks Out… Online
China’s heavy-handed measures in Xinjiang have sparked outrage and even calls for government accountability over its early handling of China’s third wave in the form of angry Weibo posts. I recorded them in this article.
In early February, when whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang died of Covid-19 after being reprimanded for “rumour-mongering”, China saw an unlikely outpour of anger at the government online. On China’s Facebook-like social media site Weibo, netizens unleashed their fury by criticizing the state’s early missteps and cover-ups.
“This is not the death of a whistleblower. This is the death of a hero,”
one netizen wrote, before these comments were removed online.
But with China bringing the disease largely under control with aggressive testing and lockdowns, the country has sought to promote its authoritarian system and portray itself as a leader in the pandemic battle. The grief and shame early on were replaced by pride and nationalistic sentiments in recent months.
That changed when China’s third wave struck Urumqi, a city in the far western part of China, as heavy-handed measures caused local residents to become increasingly impatient.
‘The new Wuhan’
The first cases of Urumqi’s third wave were reported in mid-July. Some netizens lamented that the local government had covered up the initial cases, as the third wave has only come to light after Zhejiang province imported an asymptomatic case from Xinjiang on 15 July, five days after the first case’s symptoms had appeared.
Urumqi went into lockdown on 16 July, and draconian measures were adopted.
According to media reports and Weibo posts widely circulated online, doors were taped, some sealed with stones, while threatening slogans such as “I will break your legs if you walk out” were blaring from the loudspeaker.
Meanwhile, unverified images show people who allegedly violated the lockdown order shackled to fences and rails on the roadside.
In the messaging app WeChat, messages being circulated claimed that government departments had asked residents to take Chinese medicine capsules and herbal electuaries, even if they were not sick. Pictures of the pills were posted on Weibo by some residents. Some people said their lockdown experience was as tragic as that in Wuhan.
As these sweeping measures dragged on, even as the number of confirmed cases has remained zero for the past week, Urumqi locals were asking if such preventive measures were appropriate. They first took to the Urumqi section in Weibo to express discontent, but the posts were soon censored. Then they moved to the Beijing community, which was, unsurprisingly, censored too the next day.
Documenting what the people have said
As these voices from the ground were muzzled by the authorities, I took the step to record them. Here are some screengrabs from 22 August.
One reported the tragedy of not being able to see his/her dying grandmother due to restrictions put in place. Another was prevented from visiting his pregnant wife in hospital.
Some netizens blamed the lockdown for being too broad and unfair, and drew a comparison with the virus’ second wave in Beijing.
One made a pun with the words "西氣東輸" that resonated with those venting their anger on Weibo. The pun makes sense because the phrase can mean both “the West-East Gas Pipeline project” and “fury from the West [Urumqi] transported to the East [the Beijing community on Weibo]”
Some understood why Fangfang wrote Wuhan Diary to document the plight faced by the first batch of Chinese hit by COVID-19. She had been harrassed by Chinese netizens before as they said the book “empowered Western critics”.
Lastly, there were also commenters throwing shade on the country’s authoritarian system and its silencing of “dissent”.
Some Hongkongers may think all mainland Chinese are brainwashed or jingoistic, but this sad incident shows they do still retain the ability to criticize and resist especially if the government policies affect them personally. Some even wrote to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang directly on his website.
However, with a country keen to promote its anti-epidemic efforts and “a zero case miracle”, these voices are likely to be ignored — and deleted.
