China's work in Afghanistan 'worrying' says expert
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Dai Rongli, the former vice mayor of Ruili, in the province of Yunnan, has penned a letter to the Chinese leader. The town has reportedly faced some of the toughest curbs in the country under Beijing’s zero-tolerance policy. China’s border towns, faced with a higher risk of infection from overseas and many equipped with relatively few resources, have felt a greater impact,
He wrote on his WeChat (social media) account: “Since this small town has assumed the responsibility for the epidemic prevention and control of the whole country, our motherland should extend a strong hand to protect this tortured child.”
While not in full lockdown, Ruili does not encourage its more than 200,000 residents to leave town.
And those who insist have to be quarantined for at least seven days before departure.
Mr Dai added: “The long-term closure of the town has formed a deadlock in the town’s development.
“It’s necessary to resume production and trade.”
The Ruili government has not responded to the comments.
China, which has a strict policy, is in the midst of an outbreak.
It reported 23 locally transmitted symptomatic cases for Wednesday, bringing the total number to 270 since October 17.
Although the tally is tiny compared with infections elsewhere in the world, the spread to more than a dozen provincial areas has forced officials to toughen restrictions.
Reuters reports that, in northeastern Heilongjiang province, which shares a border with Russia, Heihe city detected one local confirmed case on Wednesday.
The city of 1.3 million demanded the suspension of manufacturing activities and business operations in urban areas, except for essential ones, and cut transport services within those areas as well as outbound routes.
Jiamusi city, also on the Heilongjiang-Russia border, has yet to report cases in the latest outbreak but has banned individuals arriving from outside from entering the city’s tourist sites for seven days.
Another two cities in Heilongjiang, Jixi and Mudanjiang, pledged to enter into a “pre-war” mode of high vigilance and stringent monitoring, though no local infections have been reported in the past week.
Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, said that China should be able to shift its policy given its Hugh vaccination rates.
He said: “But extreme caution prevails.
“Any shift seems unlikely until at least after the Winter Olympics in February.”
As of Oct. 23, 76 percent of China’s 1.41 billion population had received full doses.
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