In #Beijing, the queues to get a PCR test are back to being very long and slow tonight. Daily test results are still needed to enter public buildings but the authorities have again suddenly closed a whole lot of testing stations, others only open for a few hours in the morning.
Which brings us to this week’s Friday beverage O’Clock track, dedicated to everyone in #China still enduring #ZeroCovid restrictions. Trouble in My Brain… crank it up and don’t go insane!
I’ve been queueing for 40 minutes already. This station closes in 20 minutes. Lots of people behind me are going to be very angry after they’ve queued for so long in the winter & can’t even get a test. A little kid is riding his bike up and down the line saying “not enough time”. Image
And sure enough people are angry. Part of the problem is that testing stations have moved into housing compounds and not enough in the street + most only open for a few hours. #China #ZeroCovid
The workers at this testing site have stayed open a bit longer now to try to get more tests done but new people keep joining the queue. Every time a bloke comes out to tell people to stop joining the queue a big argument breaks out and he stops trying. Image
Now closed. Lights off. People outside trying to argue their way towards a test but it’s not going to happen. #China #ZeroCovid
They’ve announced that #Beijing public transport won’t require a PCR test result from Monday. It seems the government is looking for ways to ever so slightly ease the #ZeroCovid restrictions in place following recent protests in cities across #China.
The rhetoric from #China’s government officials has also changed in recent days with public pronouncements that new #COVID19 variants are not as serious. It’s a shift from previous lines re #Covid hell in other countries only here safe. Is it groundwork for eventual opening?
However one reading of the “easing” of some #ZeroCovid measures in #China isn’t that the government is looking to open up soon but looking for ways to maintain #ZeroCovid (at least for now) at a time when people have been protesting, calling for it to end, across the country,
Another possibility: with all the test booth closing, could it seriously be that officials want less test results to make it appear that there are less cases? Then the govt could just slowly ease restrictions in #Beijing while gradually allowing #COVID19 to spread in the city?
Fewer testing stations (+ those open, only operating for a few hours), will have to reduce the number of positive cases. Will other buildings follow the public transport system and stop requiring PCR test results in order to enter?
If the government in #China has a #ZeroCovid exit strategy, by keeping it secret, it has exacerbated the enormous uncertainty and unease in the country. #COVID19
Could this be a #ZeroCovid turning point (at least the beginning)? Take #Beijing: #COVID19 infections haven’t come down yet there is easing. It wouldn’t have happened before. Perhaps the protests have worked by shocking the government into the reality of public frustrations here?
#Beijing #Covid_19 infections have not come down yet there is this type of easing… #ZeroCovid turning point?
BTW the shopping centre example above isn’t an official policy change but an implementation matter. However that also is significant.
#Guangzhou officials appeared at a press conference without masks. This has gone viral on social media here. #China #ZeroCovid
#Guangzhou officials actually took their masks off at the press conference. This is quite symbolic! #China #ZeroCovid #Covid_19
This is pretty funny, in relation to the lack of testing stations over recent days (see above). #Beijing’s Chaoyang government has now apologised for the sudden lack of testing stations and today reopened some to ease the load… #China #ZeroCovid

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More from @StephenMcDonell

Dec 1
#JiangZemin's memorial service will be held next Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People in #Beijing. It will be broadcast live, there will be a 3-minutes of "silence" across the country with horns and sirens sounding.
Note: There will be no chance for members of the public to file past his body. Given the upheaval in #China following gatherings to mark former leader Hu Yaobang's death, it could be that Xi's administration finds this too risky with anti-#ZeroCovid protests going on.
#JiangZemin's body has arrived in #Beijing. CCTV evening news broadcast images of his body leaving #Shanghai, with small groups organised by the Party waving in the street as the car went by. After arrival in the capital, #XiJinping has been shown bowing to Jiang's body.
Read 6 tweets
Nov 29
Some of our TV coverage of recent #ZeroCovid unrest in #China, with protestors dramatically questioning the country’s governance directly, even challenging China’s leader #XiJinping himself. China’s #Covid crisis continues.
Statement from the European Union
Chamber of Commerce in #China recommending a fresh vaccine push and public awareness campaign in the county regarding vaccinations. #ZeroCovid #Covid
#Hangzhou was the latest flashpoint for anti-#ZeroCovid measures last night. Since then it’s been pretty quiet on that front in #China. There’s a government #Covid press conference in just over an hour but we don’t expect any dramatic announcements.
Read 17 tweets
Nov 28
I couldn’t believe it til I checked but, amidst #ZeroCovid protests here, #China Central Television (CCTV) is editing out close ups of spectators in its coverage of the World Cup so Chinese viewers don’t see thousands of fans without masks in the stands. Only crowd wide shots.
Whether spectators in the stands should be wearing masks or not is another question but this is clearly the Chinese government not trusting its own people with the knowledge that, in the rest of the world, crowds are now gathering maskless and #China stands alone with #ZeroCovid.
And, for those who still doubt it, here is a comparison of World Cup coverage elsewhere and on #China's CCTV with the supporter faces shots being cut so as to hide the reality of the #Covid situation internationally from the Chinese audience...
Read 6 tweets
Nov 27
Anti-#ZeroCovid protests are spreading in #China in different parts of the country, following deaths in a fire blamed on lockdown policies. bbc.com/news/world-asi…
This anti-#ZeroCovid protest is said to have happened today at Tsinghua University in #Beijing. For young people in #China, a large chunk of this crucial part of their lives has been dominated by the #Covid crisis and all its restrictions.
You’ll notice anti-#ZeroCovid protestors holding blank sheets of paper in #China. This is not only a statement about dissent being silenced here, it’s also an up yours to the authorities, as if to say ‘Are you going to arrest me for holding a sign saying nothing?”.
Read 10 tweets
Nov 25
Anyone banking on #ZeroCovid being wound back in #China soon, allowing the Chinese economy to bounce back, restoring supply chain reliability here in the near future… don’t. It’s going to take a looong time for China to ease #ZeroCovid.
The government in #China doesn’t seem to know exactly how to escape from the #ZeroCovid corner it’s painted itself into. This will be a long, drawn-out, process of trial and error easing, restricting, easing, restricting.
The huge, renewed, vaccination drive which would be needed before opening #China up hasn’t even started. Approving more effective international vaccines would help. Preparing medical facilities for a big influx of #Covid patients would also have to happen.
Read 17 tweets
Nov 23
Fresh unrest at the world’s largest #Apple iPhone factory according to Reuters. “People describing themselves as Foxconn workers pulled down barriers and argued with hazmat-suited authorities at a #COVID-hit plant” in #China’s #Zhengzhou.
More details coming through re fresh worker protests at #Foxconn: reports of injuries in clashes with authorities; some workers complaining that those who've had #Covid are being allowed back on shift; others saying they've not been paid bonuses. Some want to go home. #China
More #Foxconn protest details: some workers used sticks to strike surveillance cameras and windows at the factory complex; police have been brought in to manage the tensions there. The global supply of #Apple iPhones was already being hit by the previous mass breakout there.
Read 10 tweets

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