When the New York Times predicted doom for China over some 'western' directed Covid protests I noted that China had already released new Covid guidelines and would further open up while keeping the pandemic under control:
China can, as Peter Lee predicted, modify its current policies.
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Two weeks ago the Chinese National Health Commission had already announced 20 new guidelines.What it can further do to avoid more demonstrations and unrest is to apply sensible zero-Covid measures in a less restricting way.
Today the Chinese government did exactly that:
China rolled back rules on isolating people with COVID-19 and dropped virus test requirements for some public places Wednesday …
The move adds to earlier easing that fueled hopes Beijing was scrapping its “zero COVID” strategy, which is disrupting manufacturing and global trade. Experts warn, however, that restrictions can’t be lifted completely until at least mid-2023 because millions of elderly people still must be vaccinated and the health care system strengthened.
In total the new control measures can be characterized as less of everything:
The 10-point plan unveiled on Wednesday followed last month’s 20-point guidelines to fine-tune the policy – they aimed to make it less disruptive to the public and the economy but have not been consistently implemented.
Under the new plan, anyone who is infected and has mild or no symptoms can now isolate at home, as can their close contacts, instead of being sent to a quarantine facility.
Meanwhile, polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests will only be required for people living and working in high-risk areas. Everyone else will be encouraged to use RATs, or rapid antigen tests, instead of having to regularly line up at testing sites.
Negative PCR test results and health codes are no longer required for most public venues and on public transport, though they will still need to be shown to enter hospitals, schools and aged care homes.
Another key change is that residential complexes will no longer be totally sealed off when a case is found. Instead, high- and low-risk areas will be designated within a building, meaning just a single floor or household might be affected.
The New York Times predictably associates the new measure with the protests it had hyped:
In a remarkable pivot, the Chinese government announced a broad rollback of those rules on Wednesday, an implicit concession to public discontent after mass street protests in late November posed the most widespread challenge to the ruling Communist Party in decades.
The party appears to be attempting a tactical, face-saving retreat that would allow Mr. Xi to change tack without acknowledging that widespread opposition and economic pain forced his hand.
The NYT is claiming victory in a war that has not be fought at all.
The protests were not 'widespread' or 'mass street protest', except on Twitter and on the NYT's op-ed page. They were few, small sized and in only some cities:
Nathan Ruser @Nrg8000 – 23:17 UTC · Nov 30, 2022
For our China Protest Tracker map, we tracked reports of 7 protests that took place across China on November 29th. Totalling 51 protests since November 25th, across 24 cities. See the third edition of our map.
There are more than 100 cities in China that have a population of more than 1 million people. Compared with that the protests were minuscule.
There was thus no need for a 'face-saving retreat'.
All the steps taken now had already been planned weeks ago. The 20 new guidelines were issued on November 11. They had already shortened quarantine times but were mostly general preparation advices for local governments. What has followed now are more detailed implementation directives for those who handle these issues.
The protests have nothing to do with it as this would have happened anyway.
But what the 'color revolution' like 'Covid protests' and their coverage in the 'west' have done is to alert the Chinese authorities and to give them a chance to study the issue. Especially the use of Telegram as the command and control instrument to direct the protests will have consequences. The authorities will make sure that they have tools to prevent a repeat.
