‘Will crackdown on hostile forces’
Reports say China is mulling a roll-out of the fourth Covid shot as anger against virus strategy spreads, US says Chinese people have right to protest
China’s ruling party on Tuesday said it will “resolutely crackdown” on “hostile” forces, days after large-scale street agitations were held by citizens in several cities against strict Covid-19 curbs.
The central political and legal affairs commission, the top law enforcement body of the Communist Party of China, issued a statement late on Tuesday night, saying said the government should “resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces and illegal and criminal acts that disrupt social order”.
The statement, issued at a meeting led by security czar Chen Wenqing, did not make any reference to the protests.
“Illegal and criminal acts won’t be tolerated,” it added.
“It also asked the political and legal organs to be clear about potential dangers and strengthen fighting spirit, speed up the building of a safer China and a China under the rule of law at a higher level,” a Global Times report said.
Protests in Guangzhou
People in the Chinese city of Guangzhou clashed with riot police in hazmat suits on Tuesday night as authorities investigated more of those who have taken part in a string of protests against the world’s toughest Covid-19 restrictions.
China shouldn’t interfere with “extraordinary” protests against strict Covid curbs that broke out across the country, the US envoy to Beijing said on Tuesday in the most detailed comments by a senior US official so far.
“We believe that Chinese people have a right to protest peacefully, they have a right to make their views known,” US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “That’s a fundamental right around the world -it should be -- and that right should not be hindered with, and it shouldn’t be interfered with.”
In the Chinese city of Zhengzhou shuttered hundreds of buildings and apartment blocks hours after lifting broader lockdown measures, as officials strive to make their Covid controls more targeted in line with Beijing’s directives.
The city, home to Apple’s largest manufacturing site in China, said on Tuesday that it was lifting a lockdown of its main urban areas put in place five days ago as Covid cases climbed. Authorities then issued a lengthy list of buildings that would be declared high risk spanning the greater Zhengzhou region, which means they will continue to be subject to lockdown-style curbs.
Fourth Covid shot
China is considering rolling out a fourth round of Covid vaccines, according to people familiar with the matter, as pressure on the government mounts to move away from the stringent virus restrictions that have made the country a global outlier.
Officials are making plans for the roll-out, though a final decision on timing and vaccine candidates still has to be made, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing government business.
The move is aimed at raising protection levels in its population, the vast majority of whom have never contracted the virus. China appears to be laying the groundwork for accepting wider Covid spread, and a potential reopening after three years of trying to keep the virus out.