China opens to changes in its strategy against Covid-19

Peking. Chinese authorities signaled a possible relaxation of the rigid zero-tolerance strategy against Covid-19, following national protests demanding an end to lockdowns and more political freedom.

In a speech to the National Health Commission (NHC), Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said that the omicron variant of the virus is weakening and vaccination is on the rise.

Given this, Sun said, there is a “new situation” that requires “new tasks.”

The country is expected to announce in the coming days an easing of its quarantine protocols, allowing positive cases and close contacts to isolate at home under certain conditions, and a reduction in mass testing.

That is a far cry from previous protocols that drew public frustrations, as entire communities were locked down, sometimes for weeks, even after a single positive case.

Anger at China’s anti-Covid policy, which includes strict lockdowns, sparked protests in big cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The frustration boiled over last week in public defiance demonstrations unprecedented in mainland China since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012. The unrest comes as the economy is poised to enter a new era of much slower growth than seen in decades.

Cases across the country remain near record levels, but the changes come as some cities lifted their lockdowns in recent days.

They track protesters

Chinese police have deployed sophisticated surveillance tools, including facial recognition software and phone tracking, to track down protesters involved in the recent protests and quell a historic wave of anger.

“It seems that in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou the police use very high-tech methods,” said Wang Shengsheng, a lawyer who offers protesters free legal help.

“In other cities it seems that they use surveillance images and facial recognition,” added the lawyer.

In the capital, the police were able to use location data from mobile phones. He was also able to obtain this data by requesting the taxis that transported the protesters, and that controlled the health passes.

In Shanghai, police summoned those they identified for questioning and confiscated their phones “perhaps to extract all their data,” he said.