President Xi interacts with local people without masks in Sichuan province
Jun 10, 2022
Beijing [China], June 10 : President Xi Jinping visited southwest China's Sichuan province and interacted with local people without wearing a face mask while enforcing strict COVID-19 measures in Shanghai.
The Chinese government has ordered to impose restrictions in Minhang, a suburban district of Shanghai, as COVID-19 fears linger again.
When Xi visited Meishan, Sichuan on Wednesday, it could be seen that he did not wear a mask during the inspection period, and neither did the officials accompanying him, reported the local media.
Only on certain indoor occasions, do individual local officials or people wear masks. Photos released by the state media show that when Xi Jinping interacted with the local people, they still follow the previous model in which people are arranged to form a large circle, and Xi Jinping stood in the centre of the circle and addressed the people from a distance.
One more interesting aspect of Xi's inspection visit is that in official media reports, "epidemic prevention and control" was placed after "farmland construction", " food production" and "rural revitalization".
During the inspection, Xi said all localities and departments must strive to maintain a stable and healthy economic environment, a stable social environment and a clean political environment.
Xi called for efficiently coordinating COVID-19 prevention and control with economic and social development, and resolutely overcoming challenges currently faced by economic development.
The inspection of Sichuan comes ahead While Xi looks to secure a record third term in power, China languishes in limbo.
The most visible manifestation of this uncertainty is the draconian lockdown norms enforced as part of a zero-Covid policy.
Residents of Shanghai are faced with dire living conditions given that the lockdown prevents them from even stepping out of their houses to meet their daily necessities, or they otherwise face beatings by the police.
The era of Xi Jinping has been marked by controversial measures like the crackdown on corruption, punishing over a million officials, and weeding out efficient officials in the process. Reliability and loyalty are now the only criteria for heading public- and private-sector organizations.
Observers believe this is one of the reasons why the pandemic situation has been mismanaged, leading to food shortages in cities like Shanghai and Xi'an and the specter of a crop failure in rural areas.
On the international front, the emphasis of Xi Jinping on the occupation of Taiwan and the smothering of democracy in Hong Kong under the National Security Law has resulted in a sharp deterioration of relationships with the USA and other Western countries.
