China’s covid lockdown continues; people plead for food, medical care

Stuck in China’s covid lockdown, people plead for food, medical care While much of the world is moving past the pandemic, Beijing's orders to maintain “zero covid" ahead of a leadership meeting are taking an enormous toll. Washington Post

BEIJING — Frantic appeals for food and medical care are spreading across China in a grim deja vu, as tens of millions of people are put under weeks-long coronavirus lockdowns ahead of a key meeting of the ruling Communist Party.

While much of the world is moving past the pandemic, China remains stuck, with leader Xi Jinping continuing orders to maintain “zero covid.” These lockdowns are keeping localized outbreaks from spreading but are taking an enormous economic and psychological toll on the population.

Xi is set to begin a third five-year term next month, breaking the precedent of stepping down after two terms. Lockdowns are expected to continue at least through that meeting, the 20th National Chinese Communist Party Congress.

Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said Friday that some sweeping covid controls should be narrowed, without giving a time frame, but she also emphasized the importance of preventing large-scale outbreaks ahead of the congress, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Some of the worst reports are coming out of Ili prefecture in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, where a lockdown began early last month.

“We’ve been locked up in our home for more than 40 days. We are short of everything, especially food,” said Gulnazar, an Ili resident, who gave only one name because of security concerns. “There are so many difficulties, I feel like crying just by mentioning them.”

...China’s official case count remains minuscule, with only 949 locally transmitted cases reported nationwide on Sunday, in a population of 1.4 billion.

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