The announcement of the 60,000 deaths linked to COVID by the Chinese authorities could well raise tension in the country of Xi Jinping, who had obviously not prepared any plan to limit the transmission of the virus in the population which is decimating the country.
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“China is facing an internal problem, because they had been so vocal about their superior handling of COVID, and there, the impression of the Chinese people is that the government is doing an amazing job when it comes to it. It’s about controlling, but when it comes to managing, it’s something else,” said the former Canadian ambassador to China, Guy St-Jacques.
For the first time since the start of the lifting of the ultra-restrictive health measures of the “zero COVID” policy in early December, the Chinese government unveiled its first report yesterday.
“Between December 8, 2022 and January 12, 2023, a total of 59,938 [décès] has been identified” in medical establishments across the country, health authority official Jiao Yahui told reporters yesterday.
Propaganda
However, we should not believe too much the figures communicated by the government of Xi Jinping, warns Mr. St-Jacques.
“It’s part of a propaganda operation, since it’s clear that there are many more deaths than that,” he said. According to all the reports confirming, for example, the work overload that crematoriums face, but also all the knowledge that we have acquired over the past three years about the virus and the infection rates, mortality rates, and vaccination rate. »
For him, however, it is clear that China is making an effort to try to be more transparent, as the World Health Organization asked him last week. But, we must not forget that the Middle Kingdom is still “very touchy” when it comes to its management and the origin of the pandemic, insists Mr. St-Jacques.
“She’s been hiding information for a long time because she’s worried she’s going to have to explain the root of the problem and it comes down to a whole issue of saving face. We are far from the truth and eventually we will have a better idea of the excess mortality because these figures will come out, ”he believes.
Same story with Loïc Tassé, China specialist and columnist at Journalwho points out that from a statistical point of view, the government figures do not match.
“Given the inequality of the Chinese health care system, we can expect more deaths in very poor hospitals in the countryside and some cities. The figure they give is probably wrong, because it also seems that half the population has caught COVID-19,” he said.
Anger and discontent
Since the lifting of health measures, due to demonstrations and economic problems in the country, the virus has spread like wildfire among the population. Last week, several Quebecers reported to the Journal having contracted the disease in just a few days. Many media had also reported that hospitals were overwhelmed with patients battling the disease.
And it is particularly the elderly of the population, with more fragile health, who find themselves to be the first victims of contamination. According to government data, the average age of the victims of the balance sheet released on Saturday is 80 years old.
“There will be a lot of grandparents who will die and that will be a huge burden for the population and the parents, since in China it is often the grandparents who take care of the grandchildren during that the parents work”, explains the former representative of Canada.
In addition, the very clear end of health measures without a transition plan means that the population realizes that the Chinese government had three years to prepare a plan and that it did nothing, adds Guy St-Jacques. According to him, this could contribute to raising discontent in the country.
For Loïc Tassé, it is also to avoid raising discontent that the government does not disclose the true number of deaths.
“There is public dissatisfaction with the handling of COVID-19 and this dissatisfaction has spread to other areas: it affects the management of Xi Jinping and the management of the Chinese Communist Party. So that’s one of the reasons why we underestimate the number of deaths, because we probably don’t want to scare the population, but we also don’t want to increase their discontent, because people would be very quick to blame the government. “, he says, recalling that other subjects such as unemployment among young people and the real estate crisis are increasing discontent in the country.
Towards disputes?
Despite everything, it remains very difficult to predict whether this anger could provoke demonstrations, as we saw at the end of November with the fed up with health measures.
“People’s discontent is very big, it will increase and people will talk about it during Chinese New Year, that’s for sure. And the Chinese Communist Party will most likely take measures to respond to this discontent, ”thinks Mr. Tassé, who does not see any protest movement being prepared for the moment.
