Chinese Censors Delete Senior Official’s Reference to Timeline of Zero-COVID Controls

Cai Qi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CCP) Central Committee and secretary of the CCP Beijing Municipal Committee, attends the closing session of the National People's Congress in Beijing on March 15, 2019. Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images

A senior Chinese official’s reference to Beijing’s COVID strategies “in the next five years” has been removed from Chinese social media, causing fear and anger.

“In the next five years, Beijing will resolutely, unremittingly, do a good job in normalizing pandemic prevention controls,” the state-backed Beijing Daily originally reported on June 27, quoting the city’s party chief, Cai Qi. Cai is widely considered a close political ally of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.