China Launches Witch Hunt Against Dozens of Beijing Companies Defying Lockdown Rules

Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of Beijing’s Chaoyang district publically named 45 local businesses on Monday that allegedly violated the city’s anti-Chinese coronavirus measures in recent days, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Tuesday.

“Chaoyang district officials … issued a public notice on social media site WeChat on Monday evening [May 2] listing 45 companies they said had not complied with Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus] measures and restrictions,” the newspaper reported on May 3.

The notice claimed the offending businesses included “restaurants that offered dine-in services despite a ban since Sunday [May 1], while others had staff that were not wearing masks or not wearing them properly.”

“Some shops were listed because their staff or customers did not scan health codes and have their temperature checked before entering,” according to the SCMP.

Communist Party officials have imposed a number of pandemic-related restrictions on Beijing since April 22 when the city’s latest epidemic of the Chinese coronavirus was first detected by local health authorities. The measures have included a prohibition on dine-in services at restaurants, mass Chinese coronavirus testing edicts, and residential compound lockdown orders across several districts of Beijing.

“Residents in 12 districts in Beijing will be tested for the coronavirus each day for three days from Tuesday [May 2],” the SCMP revealed on May 2.

The newspaper further noted that Beijing health officials have documented over 400 local infections of the Chinese coronavirus since April 22. The caseload seems minor, given Beijing has a total population of about 21.3 million. The Chinese Communist Party observes a “zero tolerance” policy toward the Chinese coronavirus, however, meaning Beijing’s latest outbreak of the disease has been subject to extreme levels of containment despite its relatively small size. Beijing is China’s national capital and is directly administered by China’s ruling Communist Party.

China has battled a resurgence of the Chinese coronavirus across several major cities and provinces over the past few months. The Communist Party’s negligence in planning and implementing a city-wide lockdown of Shanghai made international headlines in early April for its unforeseen consequences, which included dire food shortages within sealed-off residential compounds. The Chinese Communist Party ordered all of Shanghai’s nearly 26 million residents to observe stay-at-home orders starting on April 5. The edict followed a mass testing order from March 28 to April 5 that forced one-half of the city to lock down for five days at a time. Shanghai’s total lockdown reached its 28th consecutive day at press time on May 3.