Beijing must learn from health codes affair

When the victims of an alleged financial scam posted online that their health codes had turned red when they went to Zhengzhou to protest it caused a public outcry.

The Covid-19 health app has become part of life across the mainland. Movement is restricted according to a person’s risk level, indicated by a green, yellow or red code.

The protesters were not infected, but when they arrived in the city and scanned in with their phones, the red code meant they could not travel and were sent back home. They said their health codes turned green once they left Zhengzhou, the Henan capital.

It could not have come at a worse time. Since the Shanghai lockdown, many have begun to question whether China’s draconian zero-Covid measures are still justified, particularly given the milder Omicron variant.

Of the 33,000 people infected in Shanghai’s recent outbreak, none of the low-risk patients had severe symptoms, and only 0.065 per cent of the high-risk group were seriously ill, according to a study led by infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong.

But it also comes as Beijing is trying to reassure the public over the situation in Henan, where depositors say they have been unable to access their money – potentially tens of billions of yuan – in four rural banks. Investigations have been launched and arrests made, and the government has vowed to step up supervision of small lenders.

Claims that some depositors had their health codes manipulated to stop them from protesting could further dent public confidence in the government’s pandemic controls, as well as its sincerity to protect them. Beijing was quick to fire officials involved in misuse of the health codes in Zhengzhou and has repeatedly said the app can only be used to control the spread of Covid-19.

But that contrasts with previous reports of the health codes being manipulated to restrict the movement of dissidents, which the authorities have largely overlooked.

It can be explained by Beijing’s approach to managing public opinion. Protests by individuals or a marginalised group are likely to be met with a swift crackdown, but if the cause is something that will garner widespread public support then the government is more likely to try to address the concerns.

This approach has stopped the health codes scandal from snowballing, but Beijing would be wise to learn from the backlash – and use the app strictly for Covid-19 control.