The Government of China censured on Wednesday (11.05.2022) the statements of the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who publicly criticized the policy of “zero covid” applied by the leaders of the communist regime. The Asian giant faces an epidemic outbreak that has been fought with harsh confinements and quarantines, even in metropolises with millions of inhabitants.
Tedros said Tuesday that the “zero covid” policy was “unsustainable.” “The ‘zero covid’ policy being applied by the Chinese authorities in the face of the latest spike in cases is unsustainable, taking into account current knowledge about the coronavirus,” the official said. Then he added that “now we have a good understanding of the virus and good tools, so moving to another strategy would be very important.”
The Chinese government strongly defends its plan, and censors quickly acted to prevent Tedros’ statements from being released in the country, where discontent over the lockdowns is growing. On the Weibo platform, keywords #Tedros and #OMS did not give results in searches. On the popular WeChat, meanwhile, articles that mentioned the criticisms issued by Tedros could not be shared.
“Irresponsible” statements
The official Chinese reaction became known soon after. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called Tedros “irresponsible” for his remarks. The zero covid strategy “has guaranteed the health of 1.4 billion people and protected vulnerable groups. It has made China one of the countries that have best managed to contain covid,” said the spokesman.
“We hope that the people in question will be able to see China’s anti-covid policies in an objective and rational way. They need to know the facts better and stop making irresponsible comments,” he added. Zhao pointed out that China’s strategy evolves according to the situation, and is different from that adopted by other countries, which chose to live with the virus.
The harshness of the measures with which the outbreaks have been faced – especially in Shanghai, totally confined for more than a month – has provoked an unprecedented critical reaction in the population, which has spread countless complaints and videos of denunciation through the networks.
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