Xi govt's advisor blames local authorities for backlash against China's strict COVID curbs

The rage amongst citizens in China over the government’s strict zero-COVID policy majorly stemmed from a breach of law by the low-level governments, according to Jiang Mingan, the legal adviser to the country’s National People’s Congress. Speaking about the unrest that ensued in China over stringent lockdown measures, Mingan said that local governments are to be blamed for it because of poorly implementing the policies that were put forth by Xi Jinping’s government to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“An important reason why some local preventive and control measures are resented or even resisted by the public is that they violate the provisions of laws and regulations on the conditions, subjects, authority and implementation procedures for taking corresponding COVID preventive and control measures,” reads an excerpt from the article published by Jiang on WeChat. 

He also targeted local governments for not taking responsibility for the casualties and injuries that occurred due to COVID controls. “Grass-roots prevention and control personnel are managed or selected by the relevant local government, and their illegal acts are not only the responsibility of themselves but also the local government that manages or selects and appoints the grass-roots units,” Jiang wrote.

Local authorities face confusion, lack of guidance

Lately, the Chinese State Council has deflected blame on low-level governments for poorly implementing safety measures, contrary to analysts who have sided with the local authorities. According to the South China Morning Post, a lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that local authorities have been left confused by unclear and complex guidelines put in place by Jinping’s government.

“There are documents and internal guidance given to local authorities to implement daily COVID prevention measures, but these documents are not accessible to the public. The lack of consistent COVID guidelines actually leaves local authorities space to interpret and execute COVID prevention measures based on their own understanding. And this creates chaos among the public,” the lawyer said. 

Meanwhile, China continues to get battered by a surge in COVID-19. According to the Associated Press, several infections were reported across local schools and businesses on social media on Friday shortly after the Communist Party relaxed some anti-virus measures in order to pull the country out of a worsening economic plunge.