China Eases Up, Except When Dealing With Imprisoned Protesters

Beijing is playing an ambivalent “good cop, bad cop” role in easing up on Covid restrictions while going after serious protesters eager to overthrow the regime. The government, spurred on by widespread outpourings of condemnations of the numbing “zero-Covid” restrictions, is relaxing some but not all constraints.Among highlights of the shift is that those testing positive for Covid-19 can stay home rather than go to special centers crowded with many other patients. Also, people no longer have to show proof they’re disease-free everywhere they go other than to enter hospitals, nursing homes, and schools.The adoption of a more realistic approach does not mean, though, that authorities are letting up on the thousands of protesters jailed at the height of anti-government rallies at Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other cities. Those accused of defying the regime of President Xi with demands for his resignation and for democratic freedoms remain in prison.Mr. Xi is so confident of his success in repressing the outbreaks that he’s now visiting Saudi Arabia as China looks to extend its influence in the Middle East. Beijing’s Xinhua, or New China News Agency, reported four Saudi jets escorted his plane as he arrived at Riyadh for the China Gulf Cooperation Council and the first-ever China Arab States summit.While relaxing onerous constraints intended to eradicate the bug that was first detected in the central industrial city of Wuhan three years ago, authorities are expected to make examples of protest leaders. They’re sure to get long prison terms if they’re lucky enough to escape death sentences, as were imposed after troops moved in on Tiananmen Square in June 1989.Don’t expect miscreants to be sent home on probation with warnings to mind their manners. The decision to relax sanctions was motivated by economic concerns as much as the need to deprive protesters of a popular cause that buttressed their antipathy toward Mr. Xi’s rule.China’s ambassador to Washington, Qin Giang, told a forum of business leaders in Washington there was “no denying” the need for China’s stringent measures against Covid. He was careful to sugarcoat the rationale for the evolving policy in fancy language that avoided mention of the protests.Covid restraints “have had some impact on the economy and people’s lives,” he acknowledged, intimating that more changes are coming. “We will continue to make dynamic adjustments,” he told the U.S.-China Business Council at Washington, to achieve “a good balance between protecting the people and restoring the economy” through “science-based and targeted control measures.” At home, even while cracking down on overt anti-regime protests China has adopted a somewhat lenient attitude toward shows of discontent on local issues that do not directly threaten Mr. Xi and the power structure he oversees.A study under the aegis of Freedom House in New York reports hundreds of “instances of dissent” against “stalled housing projects, labor rights violations, fraud, COVID-19 policies, and state violence, among other grievances.” The president of Freedom House, Michael J. Abramowitz, said the study, conducted by China Dissent Monitor, shows “individuals throughout China are standing up to Beijing’s machine of censorship and repression to make their voices heard.” They are, he said, “taking the courageous step of exercising their fundamental rights.”All the cases cited in the report reflect local issues ranging from construction projects to forced relocation as well as specific Covid constraints. None apparently were directed against Mr. Xi — a far more serious cause for repression — though no doubt they played into widespread unrest.

China Eases Up, Except When Dealing With Imprisoned Protesters

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