Several things about the reopening of China surprise and frustrate Chinese journalists

Not even in China do you understand why the authorities have been so poorly prepared for the corona epidemic. This is according to Wang Xiangwei, former editor-in-chief of The South China Morning Post

Happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit. Yesterday, Politiken, a leading Danish daily newspaper, published an interview with me about China’s sudden reopening chaos and ramifications. I have attached the Google translation of the article below

https://politiken.dk/udland/art9175754/Flere-ting-ved-gen%C3%A5bningen-af-Kina-undrer-og-frustrerer-kinesisk-journalist.

Several things about the reopening of China surprise and frustrate Chinese journalist

Even in China, it is not understood why the authorities have been so ill-prepared for the corona epidemic. That's according to Wang Xiangwei, former editor-in-chief of The South China Morning Post, which is closely following developments.

AUTO-NARRATION INTERNATIONAL22 JAN 2023 AT 17:36

SEBASTIAN STRYHN KJELDTOFT

Asienkorrespondent

From theoutside, it is difficult to understand why China's Communist Party began the Chinese winter by lifting coronavirus restrictions. It was a violent and sudden break with three years of zero tolerance, during which the government tried to keep the pandemic – and therefore also the population – in an iron grip.

A month and a half has now passed, and the infection is raging towards the Chinese New Year, which begins today, Sunday. The political process is mysterious, even when viewed from the inside. That's according to Chinese Wang Xiangwei, former editor-in-chief of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, considered one of China's best and most independent media outlets.

"No matter how you look at it, China should have had an exit strategy. They had three years to learn from other countries' reopening, but they learned almost nothing. It shows the chaos of the last few weeks, where hospitals are overloaded and morgues are overflowing with bodies," Xiangwei said.

Wang is now an independent journalist in Hong Kong and publishes his own newsletter on China. He is following the coronavirus epidemic closely and emphasizes that the reopening of China would be chaotic no matter what. But the authorities have still made the situation worse than it needed to be, he said.

The timing is critical: These days, hundreds of millions of Chinese are on New Year's holidays with their families in rural areas. Many will take the infection with them.

"It's a real concern, and China's public health system is very fragile in rural areas. According to state media, more than 90 percent of the population in large cities such as Beijing has already been infected, and in rural areas it is reported that the infection may have already peaked. But there are many who do not believe the authorities' statements that the worst is over. They fear a new wave of infections in the wake of the New Year. We'll have to wait and see," Xiangwei said. The death toll will peak at 36,000 daily deaths on Thursday, according to British research firm Airfinity. The company's estimate is significantly above official figures from the Chinese authorities, who last week stated that almost 60,000 people had died between December 8 and January 12.

A secret letter?

Why the Communist Party does what it does is a source of endless speculation in the Western media. Working conditions have always been difficult, but they have been exacerbated by the fact that China has denied several foreign journalists work visas to China in recent years.

Wang Xiangwei has over 30 years of journalistic experience. Through his work, he has built up a source network, which he has drawn on in recent weeks to understand what lies behind the Communist Party's U-turn.

He believes today that there are three primary factors that ultimately led Xi Jinping to drop the coronavirus strategy at a meeting of the Politburo on December 6.

"Firstly, it is my opinion that the infection was already out of control in late November. It was not publicly known, but the authorities knew that it was impossible to contain the virus," Xiangwei said.

"Secondly, the students took to the streets and protested against the restrictions in several cities. It was also at the end of November, and the only surprising thing was that they waited almost three years to protest. In a country like Denmark, this had happened much earlier, I think, but it says something about the Chinese mentality.

"Either way, it made the authorities very nervous, because there is a long tradition of student uprisings in China. When our former president Jiang Zemin died on November 30, there were fears that people would use his passing to continue the protests."

The third reason, according to Wang Xiangwei, is that the top leadership of the Communist Party finally realized how much damage the restrictions were doing to the economy.

"Several businessmen and politicians played a big role. One of them was Terry Gou, chairman of Foxconn, the world's largest manufacturer of iPhones, which has hundreds of thousands of employees in China. It has been reported that he sent a personal letter to Xi warning that if China stuck to its strategy, it would seriously damage its position in the global value chain," Xiangwei said. The Foxconn letter was originally reported by The Wall Street Journal in December. At the time, however, Foxconn denied in a written statement to Politiken that the story was true.

Wang Xiangwei himself does not have sources that confirm or deny the existence of the letter. In turn, his sources say that Huang Kunming, who was appointed new party secretary in Guangdong province last fall, played a key role in the decision.

"You have to understand that Guangdong is China's economic powerhouse and accounts for 25 percent of China's total exports. Huang Kunming was propaganda minister until October and one of Xi Jinping's closest advisers. When he took up his new position, he travelled to Guangdong and could see for himself how bad things were," says Wang Xiangwei.

"According to my sources, Huang Kunming personally approached Xi and urged him to change course. A few days later, Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, opened as the first city. This happened several days before the rest of China dropped the restrictions. We can safely assume that Huang Kunming would not have dared to make that decision if Xi had not somehow nodded to it."

All those factors combined meant that China had to reopen in December, Wang Xiangwei said.

More incomprehensible errors

The reopening makes more sense if Wang Xiangwei's understanding of the situation is accurate. Still, there are several things about the process that surprise and frustrate him.

"In all of Xi Jinping's ten years in power, he has stressed that China should operate with a 'bottom-line approach.' This means preparing for the worst-case scenario. But the authorities didn't do that here," Wang said.

He does not understand why China has not built up large stocks of medicines in time, which are now in acute short supply. He also wonders why China did not raise the vaccination rate among the elderly, who are most at risk.

"Distrust of vaccines has been high in many places, but in other countries the heads of state went on live television and took the vaccine to prove to the population that it was safe for the elderly. None of China's leaders have done that, and I do not understand that. It would have made a big difference," Wang said.

He also believes that China's epidemiologists should have gone on television and explained the reopening a week before it was implemented. This had dampened some of the panic that spread when the restrictions were suddenly lifted overnight.

And then there are the Western vaccines, which according to studies are better than the Chinese vaccine. Countries such as the United States and Germany have offered to donate vaccines from their surplus stocks, but China has so far refused.

"This surprises many Chinese, because the authorities have always said that people's health and survival are more important than anything else. I believe that China should have accepted all the international aid we could get. Just like at the beginning of the epidemic, when China donated billions of vaccine doses to developing countries," Xiangwei said.

"It had sent a signal of international cooperation. Instead, we have a situation where the World Health Organization (WHO) criticizes the official Chinese coronavirus death tolls as unreliable and far too low."

However, the veteran journalist would not go so far as to call the current situation in China a government crisis.

"But it has clearly damaged the credibility of the authorities. China's leaders often say they are world champions in managing crises. All you have to say is this: Not this time. China needs to reflect carefully on what went wrong so that it can never happen again."

BLUE BOOK

Wang Xiangwei

Independent journalist and commentator in China.

Former editor-in-chief of The South China Morning Post (2012-15). Before that, he was China editor (2000-07) and deputy editor-in-chief (2007-12) in the same place.

Has 30 years of journalistic experience, among others for China Daily, BBC, Eastern Express.

Holds a master's degree in international journalism from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (1989).

Born in 1965.