China Covid protests: Fury and fear of virus puts Xi Jinping in a bind

BBC :
People hold white sheets of paper in protest over coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, after a vigil for the victims of a fire in Urumqi, as outbreaks of COVID-19 continue, in Beijing, China, November 27, 2022.Image source, Reuters
For the past three years, the patience of one billion people in China has been stretched, growing thinner and thinner with every lockdown and round of mass Covid testing.
Now, that patience has snapped.
As thousands take to the streets in cities protesting against Covid restrictions, an exhausted nation now asks how much longer must they endure Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy.
In one of President Xi’s biggest political tests yet, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must now negotiate both mounting fury and a deep-rooted fear of Covid, as the country feels its way to an exit from the pandemic.
An apartment fire in the western city of Urumqi may at first appear to be an unlikely spark for nationwide protests.
But the deadly incident, which claimed the lives of 10 people, was the ultimate nightmare scenario for millions of urban Chinese who live in high-rise apartments: trapped in one’s flat, unable to escape a roaring blaze because of a strictly enforced lockdown.
Authorities disputed this, but it did not stop public outrage and anxiety from spreading, especially after videos and audio clips purportedly featuring residents screaming and begging to be released circulated online.
The incident was also the latest in a series of horror stories linked to Covid restrictions.
Early on, during city-wide lockdowns, reports surfaced of pregnant women losing their babies and the old and vulnerable dying, because of a lack of timely access to medical care.
Many lockdowns also seemed to have the same stories of food and medicine shortages, as it became clear that local authorities were struggling to cope.
Then, more traumatic incidents began to emerge, such as a bus crash that killed dozens of people who were being ferried to quarantine centres, or children dying in quarantine facilities.
Many hoped there would be a reprieve announced at the recent CCP congress where Mr Xi cemented his power, but he made it clear there would be no change to zero Covid, provoking more dismay.
The policy has no doubt saved many lives, with China achieving one of the lowest per capita Covid death rates in the world. But it has also sapped the energy of its people.
Suffering under Covid restrictions has become a unifying experience, breeding anger in many corners of China from major cities to far-flung regions like Xinjiang and Tibet.
It has galvanised every part of society including university students, factory workers, middle-class families, and the elite.
A resident undergoes a nucleic acid test for the Covid-19 coronavirus in Xi’an in China’s northern Shaanxi provinceImage source, Getty Images
When a man staged a protest on a Beijing bridge, shocking the country with its openly defiant criticism of President Xi, it set the bar for the expression of more direct and sharper dissent both outside and within China, emboldening many others.