Protests Against Covid-19 Restrictions

Protests Against Covid-19 Restrictions

According to Dyer (2022), protests are widespread across the People’s Republic of China (P.R. China) following the complete lockdowns instilled by the Chinese government. The government has instilled a Zero Covid Policy, which features stringent pandemic restrictions. Additionally, the protests are fueled by infectious Covid-19 variants such as omicron. Students have been sent home from campuses, and businesses shut down following the proliferating demonstrations and renewed cases of unrest, especially in Guangzhou, a southern city in P.R. China. Towards the end of November, the police chased and arrested demonstrators in seven Chinese cities. In most cities, there were continued arrests with social media posts depicting protestor vs. police faceoffs in streets within Guangzhou cities. In some instances, Dyer mentions that the police checked pedestrians’ mobile gadgets to verify if they utilized Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) like telegrams and others banned in P.R. China. This paper reviews the continued protests against Covid-19 restrictions in China. It starts by providing an overview of the problem causing the social unrest and proceeds to evaluate the tactics utilized to contain the protests. Likewise, it mentions the outcome and consequences of the tactic utilized while appraising the legitimacy of the tactic.

China’s Zero-Covid Policy was a government goal targeted at containing Covid-19 cases and ensuring they remained close to zero. Tactics to enhance the Zero-covid Policy comprised isolating the sick, mass testing, and ensuring stern lockdowns around the country to ensure that infected individuals did not spread the highly infectious Covid-19 flu (VOA News, 2022). The Policy began in Wuhan, where the virus initially broke out towards the end of 2019. In Wuhan alone, the 11 million population was locked in their households, whereas the rest of China adopted the Zero Covid policy later. In the VOA report, the Chinese government insists that the plan has helped avert the severe impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The infection and morbidity rates in P.R. China remain relatively lower than in western countries.