Don’t Panic: China Rebrands Mounting Lockdowns as ‘Static Management’

China’s ruling Communist Party strategically labeled expanding nationwide Chinese coronavirus restrictions over the weekend as “temporary controls of social activities” after some residents in certain affected cities, such as Xi’an, reportedly “panicked” after first learning of the restrictions, China’s state-run Global Times acknowledged Saturday.

The government of central China’s Xi’an on April 15 ordered all 13 million-plus residents of the city to observe “temporary controls of social activities” from April 16 through April 19 to contain a fresh local outbreak of the Chinese coronavirus. Xian’s municipal “anti-epidemic command center” issued a press release announcing the lockdown on the night of April 15, or mere hours before the restrictions went into effect starting at 12:01 am on April 16. The last-minute notice shocked many Xi’an residents and caused some to “panic,” according to the Global Times. The edict detailed how the city would assign local Communist Party monitors to stand guard outside Xi’an residential compounds during the lockdown and ensure no one escaped the buildings.

“[R]esidents are encouraged not to go outside their residential communities, with volunteers being deployed to register and take the temperature of those who come in and out,” the statement read.

Xi’an’s latest movement restrictions came as a surprise to many of the city’s residents, in part because the community had only just emerged from the admittedly “tough days” of a month-long Chinese coronavirus lockdown from December 2021 to January 2022, as acknowledged by the Communist Party-run Global Times on April 16.

Outside of Xi’an, at least eight other Chinese cities and counties have entered new Chinese coronavirus lockdowns over the past month. A separate article by the Global Times on April 17 attempted to paint the nationwide lockdowns as anything but, carefully categorizing affected residents as “under static management.”- READ MORE