Coronavirus: pop-up window on Beijing health code app scuttles return plans, holds up medical care
- Those affected cannot buy a plane or train ticket or enter an airport or railway station
- Municipal government has pledged to improve policy for people returning to capital
The 29-year-old has been unable to return to Beijing, because the city’s health code app says she has been in an area affected by a coronavirus outbreak. She missed an important exam for professional qualifications as a result and said she feared for her job.
“If I continue to be locked out of Beijing, I am not sure if my employer would be still willing to pay my salary,” Li said.
Li was prevented from buying a train ticket back to the capital because a pop-up window on the health code app said she should “temporarily suspend entering Beijing” after visiting an area with a Covid-19 outbreak.
Getting that window on your app means you cannot buy a plane or train ticket or enter an airport or railway station.
01:30
China’s zero-Covid policy under pressure as infections rise in major cities
The pop-up window – known as tanchuang in Chinese – has become a thing of dread for the capital’s 22 million residents because it can disrupt travel plans, delay medical treatment and threaten livelihoods.
China’s recent pledge to fine-tune some of its strict Covid-19 rules has led to hopes that the country will finally be ready to reopen soon. But the nation’s capital remains heavily fortified against potential imported cases, with its health code app limiting mobility.
Many of those outside Beijing struggle to get in, while those in the city worry that going on a trip could leave them locked out.
China to enforce nationwide health code system aimed to reduce travel hassles
Health code apps have been a key pillar of China’s zero-Covid policy, with the one in Beijing – launched in 2020 – using algorithms and big data technologies to facilitate contact tracing. It has been lauded for mitigating the spread of the virus and won a national award for innovation.
A green code on the app indicates you are Covid-free and can safely move around. But losing that status and getting the dreaded pop-up window means you have been exposed to the risk of infection and will be denied access to all public spaces and barred from travelling until you have been cleared of contagion risks.
The once-popular feature, which many saw as a useful tool for tracking potential coronavirus patients, has now turned into a burden that severely limits the mobility of many people.
The capital has never imposed a hard lockdown or banned people from leaving the city. But the stringent application and sometimes arbitrary nature of the pop-up window have effectively put many people’s travel plans on hold.
Beijing’s municipal government has outlined several reasons for people getting a pop-up window: they have been to a city with Covid-19 cases in the past seven days; they have been to a place visited by someone exposed to the virus; they have just been abroad; or they failed to get tested for the virus in the previous 72 hours.
Shanghai health data of 48.5 million allegedly hacked and touted for sale
But many have complained that the criteria are often arbitrary. In many cases, it remains unclear why a pop-up window has appeared when none of the reasons for one seem to apply. In some extreme cases, people who rarely leave the compounds where they live have received pop-up windows without a clear explanation.
Li said she had repeatedly called the hotline to appeal her case but had never been told when or how she would be able to travel back to Beijing. She was also never given a reason for receiving the tanchuang, and the district she has been staying in has not reported any new Covid-19 cases in recent weeks.
“I understand it is important to have pandemic control measures, but the one-size-fits-all approach in the implementation of policy has really affected the lives of many people,” she said.
03:08
How ordinary people in China view the country’s ‘dynamic zero-Covid’ policy
Besides being home to the nation’s leaders and a major business hub, Beijing is also the preferred destination for those seeking medical treatment in northern China, with its top hospitals having the best medical resources in all specialties.
But pop-up windows on their health code apps have prevented many people from travelling to the capital for medical care in recent months.
Wen Xi, 30, has an autoimmune disease and required urgent treatment at a hospital in Beijing. She secured an appointment but has been unable to enter the city because her health code app in Tangshan, Hebei province, shows a pop-up window.
“The city I am currently in has been designated as high risk, but the district where I live is low risk and my health code has always been green until I suddenly got the tanchuang earlier this week,” Wen said.
“I know a person who lives in the same district successfully entered Beijing recently without getting tanchuang. It’s all very random.”
The controversial policy has even drawn criticism from populists on social media who are usually staunch defenders of the government.
Zhou Xiaoping, one of China’s most prominent nationalist bloggers, recently sparked heated discussion by highlighting the confusion stemming from the country’s pandemic restrictions.
“If you return from the US, where the epidemic is most serious, you only need to be quarantined for seven days before you can return home,” he said in a post on Sina Weibo – China’s answer to Twitter – that was later removed. “But if you go to a border province in China, where the epidemic is less serious, you may not be able to return home even after having waited for 70 days.”
China grapples with about 20,000 new Covid cases days after easing rules
Beijing’s municipal government eventually publicly recognised the problem after the State Council, China’s cabinet, announced a flurry of slight changes to make the country’s Covid-19 response more targeted. It pledged to “improve the policy for people seeking to return to Beijing” and vowed to clear the status of those who had received the pop-up window, government spokesman Xu Hejian said on November 12.
But in a seemingly contradictory message, officials also said Beijing should stick to its “moderately strict policies” considering “the current spread of the virus and the reality of the capital city”.
02:31
Death of 3-year-old boy in China sparks outrage over continuing zero-Covid lockdowns
People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, said in an editorial that China must “unswervingly implement” the zero-Covid policy, and that the recent changes do not mean China should relax its pandemic restrictions.
With the zero-Covid policy – involving rooting out every chain of transmission – remaining the overarching goal, officials would often rather cast a wider-than-necessary net in identifying potential infections than risk being blamed for failing to contain an outbreak, a public health expert said in defending Beijing’s policy.
“Officials in different regions will have different interpretations of the policies coming from the central government, leading to the varying levels of strictness in different regions,” said Zhou Zijun, a public health expert at Peking University.
Tell Beijing to ease zero-Covid policy, US congressional panel hears
“Dynamic zero-Covid is still the overall goal. It is natural for major cities like Beijing to be stricter with the rules because of the population density. An outbreak could easily happen and would create immense pressure on our hospitals and health services.
“Tanchuang is one of the measures used to identify potential infections as soon as possible so as to prevent a massive outbreak. But the lack of transparency in the decision-making process also means people might not be able to fully understand the government’s direction.”
