While China has doubled its ‘zero COVID’ level, some have had enough | politics news

A few months ago, a box was left outside the door of 34-year-old Yu Ting Xu*’s apartment in Beijing. Inside, there was a wristband for electronic monitoring and a requirement to wear a wristband at all times as part of the fight against COVID-19 in her residential area.

While telling her story over a video call, Yu wanders in the background. When she returned to her screen, she was holding the wrist strap, which looks like a smartwatch but has a plain white plastic surface instead of the screen.

“I’ve never worn it,” she said.

“I’ve accepted lockdowns, enforced COVID-19 tests and health codes, but this thing just feels like a watch for the sake of watching.”

The wristband was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Liu who was among a growing number of citizens concerned about the motive behind the Chinese authorities’ expanded use of technology related to COVID-19.

“I’m afraid the COVID-19 strategy is starting to revolve around controlling the Chinese people rather than fighting COVID-19,” she told Al Jazeera.

A few days before Yu received the wristband, thousands of residents in central China used social media to stage a protest outside a bank in Zhengzhou.

Many have been unable to access their bank deposits at the city’s Yu Zhou Xin Min Sheng Village Bank since April with the bank claiming that the problem was due to “system upgrades”.

Depositors were fed up with months of excuses, and the depositors planned to protest in front of the bank’s headquarters. But the day before, thousands of depositors suddenly found their smartphones come to life and health codes in mandatory COVID-19 apps turned from green to red.

The color changes usually occur when the owner visits an area with COVID-19 or has been identified in close contact with a person with the virus, meaning that the individual should be quarantined immediately.

The red icons raised eyebrows.

There was no recorded outbreak of COVID-19 in the county, and the health codes of family members who accompanied several depositors to the protest remained green.

Beijing has said technology such as an app and wristband is essential to its COVID-free strategy and commitment to eradicating the virus, but the red health codes in Zhengzhou and electronic bracelets in Beijing have contributed to heightening doubts about the government’s motives.

Protection causes damage

When the health code system was implemented in early 2020, rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, warned that these digital tools risk violating the human rights of any Chinese citizen with a smartphone.

In its first two years of operation, these early warnings were largely drowned out by thunderous applause for the apparent success of the COVID eradication policy. While many Western countries have been stumbling from one chaotic national lockdown to the next, Chinese authorities have managed to keep most of China free of COVID-19 through targeted lockdowns using digital tools to prevent infected or potential infected people from spreading the virus.

Today, however, the roles are largely reversed.

While most of the world has used vaccination as a way out of the restrictions of the coronavirus, China is stuck in a cycle of relentless lockdowns in a relentless attempt to stem every outbreak of COVID-19. Despite the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines and the associated decline in death rates, Beijing’s COVID-free policy remains firmly in place with no end in sight.

The Chinese government defends this policy as a well-intentioned strategy to protect the people.

But prolonged lockdowns in cities like Shanghai have brought with them reports of food shortages, family separation, and even pet killings of patients sent into quarantine. In mid-September, there was outrage when a bus carrying people to a COVID-19 quarantine center crashed, killing 27 passengers.

The incident directly fueled the ongoing debate in Chinese society about the cumulative costs of government coronavirus policy.

“It is the government’s strategy to eliminate COVID that is killing us, not COVID-19,” declared one Weibo user after the incident.

His position was quickly removed by censors.

On Thursday night, two protest banners were suspended from an overpass in Beijing questioning coronavirus controls and, in an even more unusual move, Xi’s leadership.

Social media posts showed plumes of smoke rising into the air, but in both the virtual and real worlds, all evidence of the event was quickly removed.

More intrusion, less support

Han Wu*, 37, from the southern city of Guangzhou, was among several Chinese users on Weibo who expressed outrage after the incident in Zhengzhou. Like Yu in Beijing, he also believes the authorities have come a long way in their quest to achieve zero COVID.

Han was forced to leave his home and move to a government quarantine center for 14 days after he tested positive for COVID-19 at the end of June.

He told Al Jazeera, before opening the camera on his phone to show marks and cuts from outside his door as evidence of forced entry.

Han later learns from the local authorities that they have entered his apartment to disinfect the rooms and make sure no one else is living there. He was told that these were necessary precautions.

“I am in favor of containing COVID-19 infection, but I am not in favor of government intrusion and breaches of privacy,” he said.

Lin Bo is a researcher in digital authoritarianism and Chinese influence at Tulane University in the United States.

He explains that it used to be the so-called terrorists, separatists, criminals, and political activists who felt the Chinese authorities’ capacity for repression, but the zero-COVID policy exposed the usually apolitical middle class to the powerful arm of the government.

He says discontent could lead to further abuse of the system.

“It is very likely that the digital tools initially used to control COVID will be increasingly used for social control if dissatisfaction continues to rise,” says Lin.

“In turn, this can lead to a feedback loop where dissatisfaction with the COVID strategy tempts authorities to use digital tools to ensure social control that creates more dissatisfaction.”

not revolutionary

The discomfort with COVID policies comes at a time when the need for stability is of paramount importance to China’s ruling party.

The 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is scheduled to begin on October 16, and President Xi Jinping is expected to secure an unprecedented third term, making him the longest-serving party leader since Mao Zedong.

The conferences are among the most important political events in China, and are held once every five years.

“China faces a series of complex challenges at a time when the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping need to see a prosperous and harmonious China,” said Christina Chen, a China policy specialist at INDSR Taiwan think tank.

The coronavirus eradication strategy is also hurting the economy, with growth at its slowest in decades, youth unemployment at 20 percent, and a distorted housing market where thousands of people refuse to pay mortgages on unfinished homes while the building has been in place for decades. . The frenzy has left over 50 million homes vacant.

“China needs to appear stable, and the political projects associated with his presidency, such as the strategy to eradicate the novel coronavirus, must appear as indisputable successes in order to legitimize his service for a third term,” Chen adds.

Going to the conference, cases of coronavirus infection are increasing and new variants have been discovered. While no deaths have been reported since April, the government continues to reiterate its commitment to ‘zero COVID’ regardless of the discontent among the general public over the harsh restrictions and regular testing.

Back in Beijing, Yu admits that the politics made her more suspicious of the authorities.

“I’m not a revolutionary,” she said, closing her fingers around the electronic monitoring wristband in the palm of her hand.

“I just don’t want to be monitored and exploited.”

When asked what she would do if she was forced to wear a wristband, she stood up and pushed her chair away.

“I’ll show you.”

She takes a few quick steps toward an open window in the back of the room and throws her wrist outside at night.

* The names of Yu Ting Xu and Han Wu have been changed to protect their identity.