Thread by @EvanBlake17

On Monday Shanghai, China, began a 2-stage lockdown to curb the spread of #COVID19 and save lives. Shanghai is the most populous urban area in China with 26+ million people and a major financial and industrial center of world capitalism. #ZeroCovid 1/
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During these lockdowns, all transit will stop, nonessential workplaces will close, and schools will switch to remote learning. Every resident will be given multiple PCR tests in an attempt to identify all COVID-19 infections and cut off every chain of transmission. 2/

The Shanghai lockdown is highly significant. It takes place under conditions in which China is struggling to contain its worst COVID outbreak since the start of the pandemic in late 2019, fueled by the highly contagious, immune-resistant and virulent Omicron BA.2 subvariant. 3/

Since the beginning of March, COVID-19 infections have gradually risen across much of China, from a 7-day average of 119 daily new cases on March 1 to an average of 5,203 daily new cases on March 28, with a total of 75,037 infections identified this month. HT @BryanDyne 4/

Compared to the horrific waves of infection that have swept the rest of the globe, these figures are minuscule, but they are the worst that China has experienced since first eliminating COVID-19 in early May 2020. 5/

China’s ongoing outbreak is entirely the fault of the Western imperialist powers, led by the US. Refusing to follow the lead of China and other countries which eliminated #COVID in 2020, they have instead allowed the virus to infect billions of people over the past 2 years. 6/

They have enforced vaccine nationalism and upheld the profit interests of the pharmaceutical monopolies, leaving 85 percent of all people in low-income countries entirely unvaccinated. 7/

These homicidal policies have killed an estimated roughly 20 million people worldwide, according to the Economist’s tracker of excess deaths, while spawning ever more dangerous variants whose spread is increasingly hard to contain. 8/ economist.com/graphic-detail…

BA.2 is the most hazardous variant to have evolved so far. It is believed to be roughly as infectious as measles, the most contagious pathogen known to man, as well as more immune-resistant than the Omicron BA.1 subvariant and as virulent as #Delta. 9/
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The very fact that China has prevented the exponential growth of BA.2, as happened throughout much of the world with BA.1 and multiple countries with BA.2, is a testament to the strength of the “dynamic zero” elimination strategy they have maintained. 10/
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However, the current outbreak is testing the limits of maintaining a Zero-COVID policy in China alone, and there are growing indications that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime is debating some sort of shift away from this strategy. 11/ globaltimes.cn/page/202203/12…

In addition to the objective challenges of stopping BA.2, considerable pressure has been brought to bear by global finance capital, as well as sections of the Chinese bourgeoisie and upper middle class whose financial interests are impacted by lockdowns. 12/

In contrast to previous citywide lockdowns which were open-ended until transmission stopped, the Shanghai lockdown is bifurcated & confined to only 9 days. It is also belated and should have begun at least a week ago, as cases have steadily risen in the city since mid-March. 13/

On March 16, Shanghai recorded 158 new infections, followed by 983 on March 23, and then a record 3,500 on March 27. Over the past two days, Shanghai has accounted for the absolute majority of all COVID-19 infections across China. 14/

On March 20, Shanghai scientist Wu Fan stated, “Shanghai is irreplaceable to China’s economy. … If the whole city stood still for a week or 10 days, it could be beneficial to curbing the pandemic. But the loss would be unbearable for small businesses and ordinary people.” 15/

These comments were made 3 days after Chinese President Xi Jinping stated that the CCP must “strive to achieve the maximum prevention and control at the least cost and minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development.” 16/

The growing indications that China’s ruling elite is seriously considering an end to the Zero-COVID elimination policy are deeply concerning and must be opposed by the working class in China and internationally. 17/

The main weakness of China’s #ZeroCovid policy is its national character, which flows from the nationalist & pro-capitalist politics of the CCP. Encircled by governments determined to let the virus rip, the CCP feels compelled to adapt to the policy of “living with the virus” 18/

In reality, any lessening of the Zero-COVID policy and even the adoption of a comprehensive “mitigationist” approach would prove disastrous for the Chinese masses, who overwhelmingly support China’s pandemic policies. 19/

As soon as this fatal step is taken, the virus will immediately become more difficult to contain and pressures will build to completely cave in to the “herd immunity” camp. 20/

The pressures to abandon Zero-COVID must be overcome by the Chinese working class, in unity with workers globally striving to end the needless suffering from #COVID19. The experience in China underscores the basic reality that there is no national solution to the pandemic. 21/

Since February 2020, the @WSWS_Updates has continuously elaborated a strategy to mobilize the international working class in a unified movement to eliminate COVID-19 in every country in order to stop the pandemic once and for all. 22/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Now, as humanity stands on the brink of #WorldWarIII, the fight for elimination must be connected to the building of an anti-war movement. The urgency with which this unified anti-war, anti-COVID-19 movement must be developed cannot be overstated. 23/ wsws.org/en/articles/20…

Not only the health but also the very survival of mankind hangs in the balance. The future depends on the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of world socialism. 24/24 Wsws.org/join