China relaxes anti-covid measures in Guangzhou to curb new protests

The Chinese city of Guangzhou has temporarily lifted lockdowns in several districts in an attempt to curb growing unrest among workers, who have been in clashes with police in the southern manufacturing hub in recent weeks.

The last one took place in the early hours of this Wednesday, again between workers from other provinces and law enforcement, due to the strict protocols to stop the virus and that prevent them from earning their daily wages.

This relaxation of the measures comes a day after Beijing blamed local governments for taking the law into their own hands when implementing the "dynamic zero covid strategy" and announcing that it will accelerate vaccination of the elderly, whose rates immunization rates are very low.

Thousands of people across the country turned out over the weekend to demand a "return to normal life" and the removal of restrictions.

The demonstrations have ceased after a huge police deployment.

Although the authorities have ensured that there is no longer any trace of the DIN-A4 Revolution ―in reference to the blank sheets that the protesters exhibited in the face of censorship―, at dawn on Wednesday, the Cantonese capital experienced another episode of clashes between workers and police.

According to the posts of a witness on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, the confrontation took place in the Haizhu district, where many Guangzhou textile factories and workshops are located and where what are known as urban villages have emerged, in which workers from other countries live. provinces in rather precarious conditions.

In a message that is being shared via Twitter, one of the workers explains that the authorities have forced his company to increase the cost of shipments due to the disinfection and quarantine protocols that the packages have to go through.

“For our factory it is more than 100 yuan (13.5 euros) per package, and we have about 1,000 packages to deliver, so it costs the company about 100,000 yuan (13,500 euros) per day.

It is not that we do not want to follow the rules [preventivas contra la covid], they are simply taking us to the limit, ”he criticizes.

In his publication, he assures that between 500 and 600 police officers traveled to the area.

In the videos that are circulating on social networks, riot policemen are seen wrapped in PPE (individual protection equipment), carrying shields and advancing down a narrow street in formation towards what appear to be sheet metal fences ―the ones that are placed to seal off confined areas—while throwing objects at them.

In others, it is noted that the agents take several people handcuffed and how a tear gas canister falls in the middle of a group of people in the street, which causes a part to flee.

Less than 24 hours after the incident, the Cantonese capital, with 19 million inhabitants, has announced a relaxation of anti-covid measures, despite registering some 7,000 infections a day.

China is facing the worst wave of infections since the start of the pandemic and, although this Wednesday it registered a slight decrease in the number of positives compared to the previous day, the figures continue to be higher than those of last spring.

“I think they are doing a test here in Guangzhou to see if it works, to see if even by doing fewer tests and with less strict confinement the covid can be controlled,” says Jin Dong-yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, quoted by

.

In addition, the authorities of Zhengzhou (in the east), where the largest iPhone factory in the world is located, operated by Foxconn, have also announced the "orderly" resumption of activity, although they have published a long list of developments that will continue to be confined. .

Last week, the Foxconn plant made headlines again for a huge wage protest inside its facilities, which was mixed with the demands of some workers who accused management of mixing healthy and covid-infected employees.

These more lax protocols come after the National Health Commission promised that it would respond to the "urgent concerns" of citizens and emphasized that the strategy to fight the pandemic must be implemented in a more flexible way, according to the conditions of each region. .

Fed up, after two months in which several tragedies have taken place caused by the iron application of the zero covid policy, added to the havoc in the economy, caused many people to explode in various parts of the country last weekend, who lost their fear of demanding greater freedom.

According to a

Australian Strategic Policy Institute, between Saturday and Monday there were up to 43 protests in 22 cities in China.

At the moment, the number of detainees is unknown.

Although neither authorities nor state media have openly referred to the demonstrations, Chen Wenqing, head of the Central Committee for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has said that the country will "crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces”.

In his speech, published Tuesday night by the state-run Xinhua news agency, the senior Chinese official also stressed that "illegal and criminal activities that disturb the social order" will not be tolerated.

According to a protester denounced to EL PAÍS, in Beijing and Shanghai the police have threatened those who were present at the rallies and are confiscating the mobile phones of passers-by in the areas where they took place, in search of applications prohibited in China, such as Telegram. or Twitter.

In large cities, security has been reinforced in a very visible way.

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