President Xi warns doubters for questioning China's zero-COVID policy

Chinese President  Xi Jinping has issued the harshest warning against doubters who challenges the country's zero-COVID policy. The move comes after many Shanghai residents have taken to social media to call for help and vent their anger over severe food shortages and lack of access to medical care over the past five weeks. At a meeting chaired by Xi, the ruling Communist Party's supreme Politburo Standing Committee vowed to "unswervingly adhere to the general policy of 'dynamic zero-Covid,' and resolutely fight against any words and acts that distort, doubt or deny our country's epidemic prevention policies."

This is the first time Xi, who according to state media made an "important speech" at the meeting, has made public remarks about China's battle against Covid since public furore erupted over the harsh lockdown in Shanghai. He said China’s response was “scientific and effective”. He told officials to “unswervingly adhere to the general policy of dynamic zero-Covid”.  "We have won the battle to defend Wuhan, and we will certainly be able to win the battle to defend Shanghai," it said. Accoeding to media reports, China is the last major economy still committed to a policy of containment and elimination of the virus, despite the increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant, which has overwhelmed other previous zero-Covid jurisdictions. 

The stringent, frequent lockdowns are fuelling public discontent and dealing a devastating blow to the Chinese economy. Shanghai residents protested from their windows, banging pots and pans and shouting in frustration, others even clashed with police and health workers in the streets -- a rare scene in a country where dissent is routinely suppressed. In April, China's services sector, which accounts for more than half of the nation's GDP and over 40 per cent of its employment, contracted at the second sharpest pace on record, while the manufacturing sector also shrunk,  And as Omicron spreads in other parts of China, more local governments are imposing swift lockdowns in response to just a handful of cases.