At the end of 2019, an unexplained pneumonia outbreak occurred in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Subsequently, tens of thousands of people were infected with the new coronavirus, and Wuhan, with a population of more than 10 million, announced the closure of the city. The rapid spread of the epidemic around the world has become the biggest test after Xi Jinping came to power. However, under the national system, all people participated in prevention and control, and China, where the epidemic first appeared, has become one of the countries least affected by the epidemic. The official propaganda that Xi Jinping has been “personally directing and personally deploying” the anti-epidemic work is also regarded as the most important political achievement in Xi Jinping’s second term, and it is also attributed to “socialism has a natural institutional advantage in fighting the epidemic.”
Nearly 2,000 officials held accountable for epidemic
Epidemic prevention and control has become a top political task in China, and local governments have adopted a strategy of “severe defense” and adopted a “one-vote veto system” for officials in epidemic prevention and control. Not guaranteed. According to preliminary statistics from this newspaper, in the past two and a half years since the beginning of 2020, the mainland has punished nearly 2,000 officials involved in the epidemic. In Wuhan, where the epidemic first occurred, more than 630 officials who failed to perform their duties have been held accountable. . In July this year, the authorities dealt with 37 cadres during a round of epidemics in Chengguan District, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province.
The mainland’s strict zero-clearing policy has increased the possibility of local officials being held accountable. Many officials were not sacked for violations, but were held accountable for “no overall view” or “inaction” in the face of the epidemic. In order to protect the black yarn, some local officials have “overweighted” the prevention and control measures, including shutting down the city without incident, excessive testing, breaking the door to kill people, setting up roadblocks to block the way home, etc. The most common is that a few confirmed cases are found in some communities. , a situation that resulted in thousands of people being transferred to centralized isolation.
Frequent closure of the city, excessive testing, patients are trapped and rescued
This year, the Omicron variant virus has swept the world, and the closure of the mainland has become the norm. Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Xi’an and other big cities have all closed their cities. When small and medium-sized cities were closed, other patients died almost every week due to delayed diagnosis and treatment or unattended care. During Shanghai’s lockdown, thousands of financial professionals were forced to live in office buildings for two months. The closure of the city has created a lot of chaos and tragedy. Zhu Weiping, director of the infectious disease prevention and disinfection management department of the Shanghai Pudong New Area Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also expressed “complete despair” in a telephone conversation with citizens.
Regarding the chaos in the epidemic prevention policy, the central government has repeatedly warned local officials to resolutely prevent simplification, one-size-fits-all and layer-by-layer overweighting. People from low-risk areas are allowed to be forcibly persuaded to return and quarantined; no extension of control time is allowed at will; no expansion of the scope of quarantined personnel and extension of quarantine time at will; no refusal to provide medical services to critically ill patients on the grounds of epidemic prevention and control; It is not allowed to arbitrarily set up epidemic prevention checkpoints, etc., to quell the anger and dissatisfaction of more and more people over the tough lockdown.
Ordinary people are dissatisfied with the central government’s warning to the local government for “nine prohibitions”
The Omicron variant virus is not very pathogenic, and countries have gradually relaxed quarantine prevention and control measures this year. China is strictly guarding against it, but the epidemic is still emerging in various places, not only causing humanitarian accidents, but also seriously hurting the Chinese economy. In June this year, the mainland released the ninth edition of the new crown prevention and control plan, and the measures for inbound personnel were relaxed to “7 days of centralized isolation medical observation + 3 days of home health monitoring”, making the outside world believe that the time to relax control may come.
At the Politburo meeting on April 29, Xi Jinping emphasized that “the epidemic must be prevented, the economy must be stabilized, and development must be safe. This is a clear requirement of the Party Central Committee.” At the same time, he “adheres to dynamic clearing” to protect people’s lives and health to the greatest extent possible. Health and minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development. When Xi Jinping inspected Wuhan on June 28, he pointedly stated that if China engages in “collective immunization” and “lay down”, the consequences will be disastrous. He emphasized that “it would be better to temporarily affect economic development a little” and continue to clear it. Obviously, China still has a long way to go.
Ming Pao reporter
(The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China counts down 19 days)
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