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Social media accounts of Covid policy critics suspended in China

The bans targeted 1,120 accounts on the Sina Weibo social media platform as the Chinese New Year travel rush starts amid a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalisations.

Reuters

China rejects accusations of a lack of preparation for reopening. The ruling party allows no direct criticism of its policies and imposes strict limits on free speech.

China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the government’s policies on the Covid-19 outbreak, as the country moves to further open up.

The popular Sina Weibo social media platform said it had addressed 12,854 violations including attacks on experts, scholars and medical workers and issued temporary or permanent bans on 1,120 accounts.

The company “will continue to increase the investigation and cleanup of all kinds of illegal content, and create a harmonious and friendly community environment for the majority of users," Sina Weibo said in a statement on Thursday.

Criticism has largely focused on open-ended travel restrictions that saw people confined to their homes for weeks, sometimes without adequate food or medical care.

Anger was also vented over the requirement that anyone who potentially tested positive or had been in contact with such a person be confined for observation in a field hospital, where overcrowding, poor food and hygiene were commonly cited.

Mass migration for Lunar New Year

The ruling Communist Party had largely relied on the medical community to justify its harsh lockdowns, quarantine measures and mass testing, almost all of which it abruptly abandoned last month.

China is now facing a surge in cases and hospitalisations in major cities and is bracing for a further spread into less developed areas with the start of the Lunar New Year travel rush, set to get underway in the coming days.

While international flights are still reduced, authorities say they expect domestic rail and air journeys will double over the same period last year, bringing overall numbers close to those of the 2019 holiday period before the pandemic hit.

Nonetheless, China is forging ahead with a plan to end mandatory quarantines for people arriving from abroad beginning on Sunday.

Hong Kong also plans to reopen some of its border crossings with mainland China on Sunday and allow tens of thousands of people to cross every day without being quarantined.

The end to mass testing, a lack of basic data such as the number of deaths, infections and severe cases, and the potential emergence of new variants have caused international concern.

Governments elsewhere have instituted virus testing requirements for travellers from China, whiChina take risks on black market drugs as Covid-19 surgesle the World Health Organization has also expressed concern about the lack of data.

Chinese health authorities publish a daily count of new cases, severe cases and deaths, but those numbers include only officially confirmed cases and use a very narrow definition of Covid-related deaths.

Authorities say that since the government ended compulsory testing and permitted people with mild symptoms to test themselves and convalesce at home, it can no longer provide a full picture of the state of the latest outbreak.