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.
The city “will implement high-quality regular PCR tests, and screening at key points, and strictly inspect entries in residential communities, work units, and public institutions,” said Cai, according to Beijing Daily.
Backlash
The reporting sparked fears and anger on China’s Twitter-like social media Weibo. Domestic internet users vented their pent-up frustrations in social posts, focusing on the words “In the next five years.”“[The reference] shocked countless average persons,” posted Yu Fei, former deputy chief of the Institute of China Private-Sector Companies.
A netizen named Traveler Passing Moon Wheel Mountain noted, “However, the few words that triggered a small incident signal that most people can no longer stand the current COVID controls for an additional five years, except when they feel the risk of death or critical conditions.”
Afterward, the Beijing Daily deleted the reference to time, keeping the rest of Cai’s speech intact; and other state outlets followed suit. For the time being, China’s leading search engine Baidu shows no hashtag saying “In the next five years.”
Hours later, Zhao Jingyun, chief of the Beijing Daily, made a clarification in his circle of friends, describing the contentious phrase as an “operational error.”
“It was added by accident by our reporter,” claimed the chief, attributing the unintended addition to a pre-made reporting framework by the reporter involved. The official did not offer a formal apology, though he wanted people to stop reposting the previous version of the story.
However, this interpretation has not quelled public doubts.
A netizen named VanTalk dismissed Zhao’s clarification to his friends as “insincere,” arguing that the published story must have undergone multiple reviews.
Some observers are skeptical about the previously stated number of years, asking “why five,” and hinting the number is coincidentally the same as Xi’s potential third 5-year term as China’s leader.
Xi is striving to achieve his goal of winning a third term, though critics hold his administration responsible for China’s worsening economy, foreign relations, and human rights abuses since he became the Chinese leader in 2012.
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