Since scrapping its Covid-zero policy, China has remained tight-lipped about how they report Covid infections and illnesses. The move has prompted several countries, including Australia, to place restrictions on travellers from China, over fears a new variant will emerge there.
China only recently reversed the Covid-zero policy as Omicron infections spread widely by the end of the summer.
But the real catalyst was a fire in an apartment block in the city of Ürümqi in Xinjiang where at least 10 people died.
“People blamed lockdown measures because the fire department couldn’t get there. Gates and doors were locked. The incident caused anger, and protests broke out across the country, of a kind, you know, nobody’s seen in China since 1989.”
Jeremy Goldkorn, editor of The China Project
Jeremy Goldkorn, has worked in China as an editor and entrepreneur for two decades and is the editor-in-chief of The China Project. Since reversing the Covid-zero policy, Goldkorn says the nation’s economy has tanked and hospitals are overrun, and with Chinese New Year just days away, he worries things will get way worse.
Link in bio to listen to the episode!