Do COVID Protests in China Pose a Threat to Xi Jinping?

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

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🗓️ 30 November 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Anger over China’s “Zero-COVID” policy erupted in protests this week. It’s a startling and nearly unheard-of challenge to President Xi’s power, a short time after he secured a third term in office. The anger over Zero COVID is unique, the staff writer Jiayang Fan tells the host Tyler Foggatt, because it has united disparate groups across China that transcend class and geography. But Fan cautions about concluding this moment is the start of a revolution: “These political wobbles are something that the Communist Party is accustomed to, to a certain degree, despite trying to prevent it at all costs.” A clampdown seems to be already under way.

The protests also arrive at a delicate moment in U.S.-China relations. Tensions over trade and Taiwan have flared. The Biden Administration has even criticized China’s Zero-COVID restrictions and lockdowns. “I can see Beijing using Biden’s words as a piece of evidence that the protests in China are not organic but somehow seeded by hostile foreign agents,” Fan says. “Even though clearly not many foreigners are getting into China these days.”

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1:14.1	Welcome to the political scene, a show about current events and the political forces driving them.
1:19.8	I'm Tyler Foggett, a senior editor at The New Yorker.
1:26.8	Anger over China's zero COVID policy erupted in protests this week.
1:32.2	It's a nearly unheard of challenge to President Xi's power, a short time after he secured
1:36.8	a third term. A clamp down on the protesters seems to be already underway.
1:41.8	The protests also arrive at a tense time for China's relationship with the United States.
1:46.6	My colleague, staff writer Zhang Fan, was born in Chongqing and immigrated to the U.S. when she was seven.
1:52.3	She's written about China for the magazine, and she reported in Hong Kong during the protests there in 2019.
2:01.5	Hi, Zhang. Thank you for being here. Hi, Zhang.
2:02.5	Thank you for being here.
	...

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