I don’t have a lot of hope for the protestors, but I’m praying for them and their success. The Chinese autocrats have a history of being willing to spill oceans of blood to maintain power. I don’t see that changing.

BEIJING — Rare protests broke out across China over the weekend as groups of people vented their frustration over the zero-Covid policy.

 

The unrest came as infections surged, prompting more local Covid controls, while a central government policy change earlier this month had raised hopes of a gradual easing. Nearly three years of controls have dragged down the economy. Youth unemployment has neared 20%.

People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, ran a front page op-ed Monday on the need to make Covid controls more targeted and effective, while removing those that should be removed.

 

In Beijing, many apartment communities successfully convinced local management they had no legal basis for a lockdown. That came after more and more compounds in the capital city on Friday had abruptly forbade residents from leaving.

 

On Sunday, municipal authorities said temporary controls on movement should not last more than 24 hours.

On another note, witness the people who criticized Americans when they protested about COVID lockdowns and now praise the Chinese for doing the same thing. We see you.

Yup.

“Chinese rare earth minerals are present everywhere, including in our phones, our cars, and our military equipment,” he said. “We cannot give authoritarian regimes any chance to exploit our vulnerabilities and undermine us.”

In its new strategic concept agreed in June, NATO described China as a challenge to the alliance’s “interests, security and values”, as an economic and military power that remains “opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up”.

This is a long, but very good, article about China, Xi, and the West’s evolving attitude toward them.

In short, he claimed that trade and engagement had been a bad bet with little to show for it, other than outsourced jobs and technology.

 

His opponents criticised his counter-productive methods and what they saw as his xenophobic language, but the mould had been broken.

 

President Biden has walked back few, if any, of Mr Trump’s policies on China, including the trade war he launched. The tariffs have stayed.

Interesting.

In a break in decades-long tradition, delegates are likely to hand Mr Xi a third term as party chief.

 

Zero-Covid was a “people’s war to stop the spread of the virus”, he said.

 

The policy has saved lives, but also exacted a punishing toll on the Chinese people and economy.

 

There is increasing public fatigue over lockdowns and travel restrictions.