China: Ruling Party shies away from blaming Xi's Covid policy as economy falters

Beijing [China], May 28 : China's concern to achieve the ambitious goal of uprooting Covid lock, stock, and barrel before the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2022 has badly affected the economy.
With its 'Zero-Covid policy' Chinese citizens are already in an unhappy state, but still, its party chose to not criticize its leader before the crucial party congress.
The Chinese Communist Party of China (CPC) has banned its retired cadres to make any speeches before the crucial Party Congress that is expected to endorse President Xi Jinping's candidature for the third term, Global Strat View reported.
The General Office of the CPC central committee has issued a set of regulations titled "Strengthening Party Building among Retired Cadres in the New Era," calling on the party to ensure that retired cadres and party members listen to and follow the guidelines of the party. Violations of disciplinary rules would be dealt with seriously, the CPC veterans have been warned.
According to the publication, these strict guidelines have been issued to gag the retired officials of the party amid the growing criticism against the President's 'Zero-Covid Policy'. The guidelines, retired party officials said, have been issued keeping the 20th National Congress of CPC in mind. In recent years, retired cadres who wish to live abroad have to apply to resign from the party; the veterans are prevented from criticizing the CPC after leaving the country.
The ambition Xi has put CPC in a difficult situation. The Observer Research Foundation commented, "Xi Jinping is morphing into Emperor Xi at home." In the American media, the Chinese President has been described as "China's Napoleon." He is sarcastically called in China "chairman of everything." To ensure his smooth election to the third term in power, the CPC is pursuing a draconian zero-Covid policy at home. This has hit the Chinese economy hard.
In the absence of democracy, the only legitimacy of the CPC is to remain in power and maintain a robust growth rate. This explains the obsession of the successive rulers of China with a high rate of growth. Now that all the countries are opening their market and people are getting back to their normal life with the opinion that they have to live with the virus, China is still stuck with its 'Zero-Covid Policy', which is affecting the economy and knocking the bottom out of CPC's legitimacy, reported Global Strat View.
China tightened its pandemic restrictions in Shanghai once again in the second week of May 2022, where all the residents were ordered to stay home. They were barred from receiving non-essential deliveries, though it was unclear what prompted the renewed tightening as the number of new Covid-19 cases continued to fall.
The notices said the tightened measures could be extended depending on the result of mass testing. Authorities had been gradually lifting isolation rules, but with the new orders, the citizens appeared to be returning to conditions at the early stage of the outbreak. Thousands of residents were forced into centralized quarantine centres for showing a positive test result or for merely having been in contact with an infected person.
Looking at the 'falling' economy, a marketing professional in the western Pudong district of Shanghai said that quality of life had declined even as living expenses continue to rise under the lockdown.
"All aspects of work are affected. I don't know when it will be time for the lockdown to come to an end," Lu, a woman living in Shanghai, has been quoted as saying by Global Strat View.
Meanwhile, people, especially students, are protesting against the high-handed attitude of the authorities. On May 14, 2022, graduate students at Peking University staged a rare but peaceful protest against the university's decision to erect a sheet-metal wall to isolate them on the campus; while allowing the faculty to move about freely.
Students are also irate over regulations prohibiting them from ordering food or having visitors; and the requirement of daily testing for Covid. As a CPC mandarin tried to admonish the protesting students through a megaphone, half a dozen students broke through the sheet-metal barrier, reported Global Strat View.
But still, CPC chose to remain silent because the CCP cannot revoke its own policy. This is the reason that it has remained silent over the growing anger against the government in recent months. It perhaps thinks not reacting to the anger is the best way to tide over it.