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.

Same, dude… same.

SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) -When COVID-19 case numbers started ticking up in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen last week, Robin Chen got in his car and fled to nearby Huizhou.

 

It wasn’t because he feared the virus – many of his friends overseas had caught it and recovered – but he didn’t want to lose his freedom again as speculation swirled that Shenzhen was headed for its second lockdown in six months.

 

“I do hope and think there is no reason for our government to continue this policy because it is simply unsustainable,” he said after playing golf and surfing in coastal Huizhou.

The “nice” Communism of China, if such a thing ever existed, has fallen away and old-fashioned totalitarianism is back in Vogue in the Middle Kingdom.

Before last year, annual candlelight vigils had been lawfully held in Hong Kong since 1990, a year after soldiers and tanks rolled through Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital and quashed a student-led protest for democratic reforms. Myriad questions still surround the Chinese government’s handling of the crackdown, which is said to have resulted in the deaths of hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of demonstrators and several soldiers.

 

Members of the public and civil servants who participate in next month’s memorial will be classified as “non-patriots,” and serving councilors or legislators face “immediate disqualification,” said HK01’s report, which cited persons with knowledge of the matter.

 

It said Hong Kong’s newly amended Basic Law—the city’s mini-constitution—means those who take part in the candlelight vigil may fail to meet the government’s “loyalty” requirement and have “no political future” in the semi-autonomous territory.

 

“Beijing will take unprecedented heavy-handed measures to handle matters” related to the event, which, like last year, will be considered an “unauthorized gathering,” it added. A heavy police presence is expected, as are “mass arrests” and prosecutions, the website said.

 

The strict enforcement by Hong Kong authorities is believed to be linked to upcoming events in Beijing, where Chinese leader Xi Jinping plans to lead the country in a landmark celebration for the centennial of the Communist Party of China on July 1.