(CNN) — Zhou, a car dealer from northeast China, last saw his father alive in a video chat on the followingnoon of November 1, hours following his home on the outskirts of Beijing was locked up.
At the time, they weren’t even aware of the sudden Covid restrictions that had been imposed: There was no advance warning, and the apartment building where Zhou’s parents and their 10-year-old son lived had no cases, he said. .
The family found out the hard way, when Zhou’s father was denied immediate medical help following experiencing difficulty breathing during the video call. Zhou and her son made a dozen ambulance calls, he said, alleging that security guards prevented relatives from entering the building to take the 58-year-old grandfather to a hospital.
An hour later, an ambulance finally arrived to take Zhou’s father to a hospital just five minutes away. But it was too late to save him.
“The local government killed my dad,” Zhou told CNN from her Beijing home, crying. He said he did not receive any explanation as to why the ambulance took so long to arrive, only a death certificate indicating the incorrect date of death.
Zhou’s anger is part of a growing challenge to China’s relentless zero-covid lockdowns. Officials insist they are necessary to protect people’s lives once morest a virus that, by official count, has killed just six people out of tens of thousands of symptomatic cases reported in the past six months.
However, among the public, the restrictions are blamed more than the virus itself for the heartbreaking deaths that have sparked nationwide outrage on social media.
On the same day that Zhou lost his father, a three-year-old boy died of gas poisoning at a gated compound in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, when he was prevented from being immediately taken to a hospital. Two weeks later, a 4-month-old girl died in quarantine at a hotel in the central city of Zhengzhou, following a 12-hour delay in medical care.
Covid-19 tests in China.
It is likely that many more families like Zhou’s have suffered similar tragedies outside of the social media spotlight.
Zhou said he contacted various state-run media outlets in Beijing to tell his story, but no reporters came. Amid growing desperation and anger, he turned to the foreign media, despite knowing the risk he might take from the repercussions. That’s why CNN is only using his last name.
“I just want to get justice for my dad. Why did they lock us up? Why did they take my father’s life?” he said.
growing discontent
Across China, anger and frustration with the zero-covid policy continues to escalate and has led to rare scenes of protest. Local authorities rushed to reintroduce restrictions due to record numbers of infections, despite a recent government announcement of limited easing of some rules.
Last week, in the southern city of Guangzhou, some residents rioted once morest a prolonged lockdown, breaking down barriers and marching through the streets.
This week, in the central city of Zhengzhou, the workers at the world’s largest iPhone assembly factory clashed with security officials in hazmat suits for a late bond payment and chaotic covid restrictions.
And on Thursday, in the sprawling southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, a resident delivered a scathing speech criticizing Covid restrictions on his residential compound. “Without freedom, I’d rather die!” he yelled to a cheering crowd, who hailed him as a “hero” and who protected him from several policemen who had tried to take him away.
These acts of defiance of authority have echoed widespread discontent online, particularly among Chinese soccer fans, many of whom are under some form of blackout or restriction, who have only been able to watch the dozens from home. of thousands of fans filling the stadiums at the World Cup in Qatar.
“None of the fans are wearing face masks, nor are they required to present covid tests. Don’t they live on the same planet as us? asked a Wechat article questioning China’s insistence on a Covid-zero policy, which went viral before being censored.
There are signs that Chinese officials are feeling the growing public discontent, which has come on top of the heavy social and economic losses inflicted by the widening restrictions.
Earlier this month, the Chinese government released a 20-point guideline to limit the disruption of covid-zero rules on daily life and the economy. It shortened the quarantine from 10 days to eight days for close contacts with infected people and for travelers entering the country. It also removed quarantine requirements for secondary contacts, discouraged unnecessary mass testing, and removed major restrictions on international flights.
The announcement of the guidelines had raised hopes of a turn toward reopening, prompting a rally in Chinese stocks. But a surge in infections is quickly dashing those hopes. On Friday, the country reported a record 32,695 local cases, as infections for the second day in a row surpassed the previous peak recorded in April during Shanghai’s months of lockdown.
Sanitation workers in China.
What reopening?
Rather than loosen controls, many local officials are reverting to a zero-tolerance policy, trying to stamp out infections as soon as they break out.
Some of the cities that had removed mass testing requirements following the announcement are now tightening other restrictions.
The northern city of Shijiazhuang was one of the first to cancel mass testing. It also allowed students to return to schools following a long period of online classes. But as cases spiked over the weekend, authorities reimposed restrictions on Monday, telling residents to stay home.
On Tuesday, Shanghai’s financial center barred anyone arriving in the city from entering places including shopping malls, restaurants, supermarkets and gyms for five days. Authorities also closed cultural and entertainment venues in half of the city.
In Guangzhou, officials this week extended the lockdown in the Haizhu district, where the protest took place, for the fifth time and locked down the most populous Baiyun district.
Zhengzhou, home to the Foxconn factory where workers clashed with police, has imposed a five-day lockdown on its main urban districts.
In Beijing, the streets of its largest district, Chaoyang, are largely empty as authorities urged residents to stay home and ordered businesses to close. Schools in several districts also moved to online classes this week.
Low vaccination rates among the elderly in China have raised fears that an easing of restrictions might overwhelm the healthcare system. As of November 11, regarding two-thirds of people 80 years and older had received two doses and only 40% had received a booster shot.
Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the tightening of covid controls reflects a typical public policy dilemma in China: “If you relax policy, there will be chaos; but if you adjust it, it will be suffocating.”
Huang said he does not expect any fundamental changes to the zero-covid policy any time soon. “Because the incentive structure of local governments has not been changed. They are still responsible for the covid situation in their jurisdiction,” he said.
For their part, Chinese officials have repeatedly denied that the 20 measures listed in the government guidelines were meant to turn around regarding handling of the virus.
The measures are aimed at “optimizing” the existing covid prevention and control policy, Shen Hongbing, a disease control official, said at a press conference last week. “They are not a relaxation (of controls), let alone a reopening,” he said.
Back on the outskirts of Beijing, Zhou said that while the zero-Covid policy “is beneficial to the majority,” its implementation at the local level was too draconian.
“I don’t want something like this to happen once more in China or anywhere in the world,” he said. “I lost my father. My son lost his beloved grandfather. I’m furious”.
