It has been almost three years since the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Although many countries, including the United State, have declared victory in the battle against the coronavirus, as President Biden suggested victory over the coronavirus in response to a reporter’s question in September 2022, things in China keep getting worse, particularly the pandemic-related human right disaster.
First, the aggressive lockdowns have endangered people's lives. Throughout China, tens of millions of people in at least 30 regions have been ordered to stay at home under partial or full lockdowns. Residents under Covid lockdowns in areas across China are experiencing shortages of food and essential items. The local authorities have imposed ruthless and often chaotic restrictions on people's basic freedom.
Second, criticism over the government's zero-Covid policy is severely cracked down. Under the strict lockdown, local residents' angry confrontations facing off against police officers are subject to severe punishments. A video shows that the police are hitting people protesting in Shenzhen, the city of 18 million people under a series of lockdowns in September 2022. Harshest punishments are enforced in response to the government’s strict Covid-zero policy.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, authorities continued to detain or prosecute people for criticizing the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, in March 2021, retired professor Chen Zhaozhi was put on trial on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for posting on social media, “The Wuhan pneumonia is not a Chinese virus, but Chinese Communist Party virus.” Between January 2020 and June 2021, the Twitter account SpeechFreedomCN recorded at least 663 arrests for Covid-19-related speech.
Third, the Chinese government strengthens its brutal human rights violations against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, in the name of disease control. Abuses committed included mass arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearances, and etc, were further pervasive due to Covid-19 movement restrictions. According to The New York Times, since August 2022, residents of Yining, a city in Xinjiang, are chafing under a monthlong pandemic shutdown with a lack of food, medicine, and other crucial supplies.
People across China are also experiencing hunger, forced quarantines, and dwindling supplies due to the CCP's zero covid policy. As new variants of Covid-19 are much harder to control, any so-called "success" of China's disease control is considered "catastrophic," which is at the expense of Chinese people's human rights, freedom, and lives.
Comments