The handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the PRC: an analysis of its political and social implications (2020-2022)

This contribution focuses on the management of the Covid-19 pandemic in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), from its outbreak in 2019-2020, until the end of 2022. First, it analyses how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), through a pervasive control of the media, set the tone for an official narrative in which China emerged as a winner in a “people’s war” (renmin zhanzheng) against the virus, silencing all the dissenting voices who questioned such an account. Furthermore, the triumphalist reports of the health emergency are examined in relation to Beijing’s "zero Covid" strategy, which proved to be problematical, despite the government’s employment of drastic measures to keep infections as low as possible. In fact, limits on population movements and rigid lockdowns, which were imposed in the areas of Shanghai, and other major cities, provoked strong disappointment among residents and even emotional protests on social media against several punitive measures: i.e., shortage of food supplies, fencing off apartment buildings, isolating infected children away from their parents. In late November 2022, this kind of protest, first aired on social media, turned into demonstrations on the streets and on university campuses, in some cases going so far as to call for Xi Jinping to be ousted. Finally, as regards the unexpected conclusion of the draconian “zero COVID” policy in December 2022, the medical consequences and the political implications of this choice are also thoroughly investigated.