Chinese state media on Friday reported Beijing is tightening coronavirus restrictions to “prevent a flare-up in China’s capital and ensure people’s safety as the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games approach.”
In reality, the Chinese Communist Party is struggling to conceal the extent of a coronavirus wave sweeping across the country despite the party’s claim to have eliminated the disease over a year ago.
“Besides the concerns raised by the latest domestic wave of [Chinese coronavirus] in neighboring city Tianjin, the arrival of tens of thousands of overseas participants must alert the Chinese capital to the risk of imported infections,” the state-run Global Times wrote on Friday, continuing the Party fiction that all of China’s coronavirus cases are imported from other countries.
The Global Times dismissed concerns about super-spreading at the Olympics and the delirious inhumanity of “China’s zero-Covid [coronavirus] strategy” as “Western media hype,” insisting “people from all walks of life” across China are serenely confident in their government’s ability to control the outbreak.
Travel restrictions have been imposed in Beijing to prevent the “epidemic resurgence” from spreading to the capital from other cities, especially nearby Tianjin, which claimed to have “126 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 22 asymptomatic carriers of the highly contagious Omicron variant.”
“According to the latest regulation from Beijing municipal government, all people coming or returning to Beijing will be monitored and screened. Any person who is deemed a risk will be quarantined to keep out any potential cases. Those with travel history to medium-risk regions within 14 days should strictly follow epidemic rules and they will be required to quarantine at home and take a nucleic acid test,” the Global Times reported.
Beijing officials additionally “encouraged” commuters to work from home and ordered more screenings to “prevent silent transmission within the city.” Beijing residents were further “encouraged” to cancel their travel plans for the Spring Festival holiday season, normally the heaviest travel season on China’s calendar.
City officials also said they would “strengthen the system maintenance” of China’s controversial coronavirus surveillance app, Jiankangbao. The app assigns citizens a color code and QR bar code that tells them which locations they are permitted to visit.
The Global Times quoted a Beijing community employee who praised “the assistance of big data” for allowing her to monitor “the recent travel history of every person in the community who may have come to Beijing from at-risk areas” and visit them at home to inspect their quarantine preparations.
Another local staffer said “daily nucleic acid testing, two doses and one booster shot are required” before anyone can enter the “bubble” created for the Winter Olympics. The bubble is reportedly being fortified by shutting down nearby university activities.
“In contrast to the efforts and cooperation of the Chinese government and people, some foreign media have talked down China’s epidemic prevention work, saying that even the ‘rigid’ measures cannot guarantee that the Winter Olympics will be problem-free. But for China, this is not an excuse to be passive and to neglect people’s safety,” the Global Times sneered.
The article then quoted a Peking University “respiratory specialist” who predicted “the incidence infection among Olympic participants in the biosecurity bubble of the Winter Olympics could be relatively high,” laying the groundwork for Chinese officials to blame all future coronavirus cases on the foreigners who participate in the Genocide Games.
Another Global Times article on Friday announced “traffic management measures” imposed by Beijing municipal officials for the Winter Olympics, including an “Olympic lane” reserved for traffic related to the event.
“The city will advocate for green and low-carbon travel, prioritize public transport, and comply with regulations governing Olympic lanes and give precedence to Olympic traffic,” the Global Times reported.
The Chinese Communist paper once again mocked “foreign media hype” about Beijing’s “rigid” traffic control plans, insisting next month’s system would actually be “simpler” and “more efficient” than controls imposed during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics – in part because the coronavirus, and the “diplomatic boycott” of China by Western nations for its human rights violations, will ensure there are fewer spectators.