China must stick “unswervingly” to its “zero COVID-19” strategy, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said yesterday, as more than half of Shanghai’s 25 million lockdown-weary residents gird for a weekend virus testing drive.
China is the last major country still pursuing a policy of stamping out all COVID-19 outbreaks, wielding snap lockdowns, mass testing and mandatory quarantines.
However, the strategy has come under heightened scrutiny after the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 triggered sweeping restrictions in major cities such as Shanghai.
Photo: Bloomberg
Chinese leaders have attempted to thread the needle between crushing the virus and limiting the damage of lockdowns, with Xi on Thursday calling for “efficiently coordinating COVID-19 curbs with economic and social development.”
However, China’s “dynamic zero COVID-19 approach must be unswervingly upheld,” Xinhua news agency reported.
Shanghai, the country’s biggest city and a major global shipping hub, last week loosened many restrictions after containing China’s worst outbreak in two years, but skittish authorities have continued to impose a shifting mosaic of curbs to guard against a resurgence.
Hundreds of thousands of people are still unable to leave their homes, and a city health official on Thursday said that residents in seven districts must get tested for COVID-19 under a drive to “test all who should be tested.”
In many areas, people would be confined to their homes until all samples are collected.
Meanwhile, in the latest sign that Xi might soon make his first trip outside mainland China in years, a Hong Kong school is asking some of its students to undergo a week-long hotel quarantine to greet visiting dignitaries for the 25th anniversary of territory’s handover to China on July 1.
The HKFEW Wong Cho Bau School on Thursday informed parents that its students had been invited to “rare honorable missions” that include attending a ceremony on June 30 to welcome unidentified visitors at the airport.
Meals, transportation and quarantine expenses would be paid by the Hong Kong government, the school said in a notice.
Vice principal Chan Lai-ha (陳麗霞) confirmed the authenticity of the notice and said students would be accompanied by teachers during hotel quarantine from June 23.
Isolated students would attend classes via Zoom, he said.
Alhough government officials have refused to say who is coming, expectations are growing that Xi, who has not traveled outside of mainland China since January 2020, would make a trip to Hong Kong to deliver a speech for the anniversary.
The territory is preparing to isolate about 1,000 people — including Hong Kong chief executive-elect John Lee (李家超) and his predecessor, Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) — ahead of the anniversary to create a closed-loop system for an unspecified Chinese state leader, the South China Morning Post reported.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS