Xinjiang infections ‘highlight difficulty of China maintaining zero-Covid policies’
- The regional authorities have admitted they have failed to control the disease, but some experts believe such problems are inevitable
- Poorer parts of the country are struggling to implement the policy and many Xinjiang residents have complained of food shortages
The authorities suspended train rail services out of the region on Tuesday to stop the spread of Covid-19, and many parts of Xinjiang, including the capital city Urumqi, have been placed under lockdown.
On Tuesday, Liu Sushe, the vice-chairman of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, admitted that the government has failed to contain the outbreak that started two months ago.
Alfred Wu, an associate professor and assistant dean at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said local governments were strained to the extreme.
“But [the Chinese government] takes this approach and every locality needs to strengthen its capacity … The first-tier cities are doing well but second and third-tier cities are problematic and lack medical resources,” he said. “It’s not just Xinjiang. Many places are about the same.”
Xinjiang, which has already undergone several rounds of lockdowns since 2020, appeared to have been overwhelmed by the latest wave of infections.