Chinese Regime Issues Conflicting Policies on Lunar New Year Travel as Virus Outbreaks Worsen

A woman is tested for COVID-19 outside a hospital in Beijing, on Jan. 28, 2021. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

As CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreaks across China continue to worsen, Chinese central authorities recently issued conflicting policies on traveling during the Lunar New Year holiday, causing confusion.

And after months of authorities blaming local outbreaks on contaminated imported foods, the central government’s State Council suddenly did an about-face and said food is unlikely to spread the virus.

Some China analysts said the conflicting rhetoric may be due to the different priorities within the Party’s factions.

Meanwhile, locals in Harbin, Tonghua, and Shanghai cities told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that they knew of infections that officials did not report, leading them to suspect that authorities were covering up the epidemic.

And in Harbin, the Party punished 12 officials for failing to contain the local outbreak. They were taken in for questioning.

Health workers are seen in the Huangpu district in Shanghai, China on Jan. 28, 2021. Hu Chengwei/Getty Images

Conflicting Policies

The CCP Central Committee’s General Office, as well as, 29 provincial and city governments, issued policies to discourage people from traveling for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on Feb. 12 this year. Millions typically travel across the country to reunite with families.

The peak travel season had already started on Jan. 28. Chinese civil aviation and railway authorities announced that the number of passengers they transported that day was about 70 percent less than the number last year.

But on Jan. 31, China’s State Council, during a press conference, said that people can travel, and that local governments should not forbid people from going back home for the holiday. It also instructed authorities not to require quarantine travelers at home or hotels, and that people traveling from low-risk regions should not be forced to take COVID-19 nucleic acid tests.

Just days earlier on Jan. 25, the CCP Central Committee’s General Office had officially issued a policy mandating that citizens stay put in the areas where they live and not travel for the Lunar New Year.

Chinese provincial and city governments also announced rules for travelers, such as requiring 14 to 28 days’ quarantine for them, and taking four to seven nucleic acid tests during the quarantine period.

People are required to pay the cost for quarantining and tests out of pocket.

Fresh wild and farmed Loch Duart salmon filets are seen on a tray at the San Francisco Fish Company in San Francisco, on April 11, 2008. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Officials also said that food products cannot transmit the virus to people because the samples that tested positive previously contained inactive virus material; thus, people should feel free to eat imported foods.

But since July 2020, the Chinese regime has consistently claimed that local outbreaks were due to imported frozen food products that tested positive for COVID-19. Afraid of getting the disease, Chinese people have been cautious not to buy imported foods.

Imported food products are usually more expensive, and thus generate more profit margins for retailers and provide more sales tax revenue for the state.

China commentator Tang Jingyuan analyzed that the State Council is headed by premier Li Keqiang, while the Party is headed by leader Xi Jinping.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang arrive in the Great Hall of the People for a ceremony to honor people who fought against the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China on Sept. 8, 2020. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

The State Council’s latest instructions hinted that Li was concerned about the economy and wanted people to consume more. Meanwhile, Xi wants to effectively curb the outbreaks so that he can solidify his power.

“No traveling means no family gathering, no gift-giving, and no big dinners,” Tang said. “The Chinese economy was in a very bad shape in 2020, and Li Keqiang must be very worried about losing these big New Year-related revenues.”

Meanwhile, “Xi wrote an article on Feb. 15, 2020, saying he is the one who can lead Chinese people into fighting against this virus. He then claimed frequently that China won or defended against the virus successfully. He needs to maintain this political achievement, which can prove that his ruling is legitimate,” Tang added.

Tang added that Chinese officials likely underreport local outbreaks; because curbing the virus has become the most important political task, they are incentivized to make the outbreak situation look containable and not tell the truth.

People line up to be tested for the COVID-19 outside a hospital in Beijing, China on Jan. 28, 2021. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

Underreporting

On Jan. 31, the central government announced that newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients were detected in northern China’s Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Hebei provinces. But locals said authorities locked down more residential compounds in Shanghai—which likely means some residents were diagnosed with COVID-19 there.

Meanwhile, Suihua city in Jilin Province announced on Sunday that a newly built makeshift hospital was put into operation and received its first patients that day. This is despite the city only announcing a few hundred patients so far that need to be treated in the hospital.

Suihua also announced its third round of mass COVID-19 testing on all residents as a method to curb the spreading of the virus. Deputy mayor Dong Wenqin said all 10,933 villages and residential compounds in the city were fully locked down and no resident could leave their homes for the past 19 days. Yet, the city still had new infections.

A medical worker takes a swab sample from a man as people queue to get tests for COVID-19 at an office building in Harbin, in northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province on Jan. 14, 2021. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Harbin is in a similar situation. Local residents told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that they knew of more infections that authorities didn’t announce.

“Everyday, they [the government staff] picked up residents from our residential compound and our neighboring Lanhe Mingyuan residential compound, who were positive infections,” a resident at Mingda Garden residential compound named Wang Jian (pseudonym) said. “They have sealed our doors for a long time [since Jan. 19], but people still get infected.”

A resident at Dajiang Jinzuo residential compound named Chen Hai (pseudonym) said his residential compound has detected new patients frequently since it has been sealed off for over a week. Chen added that he and his fellow residents had to take the fourth round of nucleic acid tests on Saturday.

Sun Ming (pseudonym) was taken to a hotel for quarantine after he was identified as a close contact of a diagnosed patient. He said: “All quarantine centers are now filled with people. A lot of confirmed patients’ close contacts are being quarantined at home now because no quarantine center has a free room.”

Health workers guard a street in the Huangpu district while a man transports a bag of rice by bike in Shanghai, China on Jan. 28, 2021. Hu Chengwei/Getty Images

Shanghai residents told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that the outbreak in Shanghai was worsening but authorities were covering it up.

“Now [the government] is building a makeshift hospital for COVID-19 patients in Pudong district, and a makeshift quarantine center in Songjiang district,” Chen said. “Don’t trust the official announcements. [The regime] won’t tell you the truth.”

Chen obtained a construction blueprint of the makeshift quarantine center in Songjiang district, at the southwestern corner of Shanghai, which he shared with this publication.

A blueprint of the quarantine center to be built in Songjiang district of Shanghai. Provided to The Epoch Times

Shanghai residents previously told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that the city was building a makeshift hospital in Pudong. On Jan. 27, the Shanghai government claimed that it was not a hospital facility but an affordable apartment project.

Local residents shared a video online disputing the authorities’ claim. The video recorded a manager at the construction field telling locals that it was a hospital. Another resident shared a video showing that dozens of container rooms—similar to those that have been used by Chinese authorities to build makeshift facilities during this pandemic—were being transported to the field.