Claims of widespread dissatisfaction with China’s zero-tolerance policy for COVID-19 are not true, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Monday.
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“The state of affairs mentioned is not true,” the diplomat said, responding to a journalist’s request to comment on the plans of the Chinese authorities in the face of “widespread dissatisfaction” with China’s zero-tolerance policy.
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The diplomat expressed confidence that under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and with the cooperation and support of the entire Chinese people, the fight against the pandemic in China will be successful.
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Zhao Lijian also stressed that some people on social media, pursuing ulterior motives, link the fire in Urumqi to local policies to combat the pandemic. He added that the Urumqi city authorities had already clarified the true state of affairs and refuted the relevant rumors and slander.
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Against the backdrop of tough anti-COVID measures, protests took place in China, including in Shanghai and Beijing. One of the drivers of the growth of protest moods in China was a fire on November 24 in a residential building in Urumqi, located in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the northwest of China, which killed 10 people.
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According to one popular opinion among Chinese Internet users, the victims could have been avoided if not for the anti-COVID restrictions imposed on the residential complex in which the fire broke out.
