Over the past few days, mainstream news outlets and social media platforms have been flooded with images and videos of large protest demonstrations in the streets of China’s cities, from Shanghai to Chengdu to Ürümqi.
Western imperialist media mouthpieces foretell, in their gleefully bloodthirsty chorus, catastrophic, bloody consequences for the Communist Party of China (CPC), the country’s leading party and the vanguard of China’s socialist revolution. The imperialist media circus is once again attempting to conjure a counter-revolution from nothing.
Fortunately, in this case, the Western world-imperialists are impotent.
The demonstrations are not, for the most part, counter-revolutionary. True, a small minority of the demonstrators are anti-Communists, and the Western imperialist media has made sure to amplify this tiny contingent, to misrepresent it as a popular voice. The vast majority of the demonstrators turned out to express frustration with, and demand changes to, a specific policy — not to stage a coup.
The protests have centered on a policy known as zero-COVID.
Zero-COVID is an approach to the COVID-19 pandemic of systematically preventing transmission and outbreaks of the virus through strict measures, including mass testing, lockdowns, quarantines, and, of course, vaccinations; non-essential businesses, schools, sports venues, transportation services, and other public facilities are temporarily closed down; working and learning from home, inasmuch as possible, temporarily becomes the “new normal.” In China, these measures have been coupled with massive programs of financial, logistical, domestic, and other forms of social support, provided to citizens by the State. The goal of a zero-COVID policy is to virtually eliminate COVID-19, to bring new cases down as close to “zero” as possible. Safeguarding human life — and, in particular, protecting the most vulnerable sections of the population, including the elderly, the disabled, and persons with preexisting health conditions — is prioritized above all other concerns, and some freedoms are sacrificed for this cause.
As one might expect, zero-COVID policies disrupt economic activity. A government that implements zero-COVID does so knowing that some sectors will grind to a halt, while the economy as a whole will stagnate.
From the capitalist’s point of view, this means that zero-COVID is, above all, simply bad for business. Critically, zero-COVID means that the workers will be staying home — staying safe, in other words — when they would otherwise be working. This, in turn, means reduced productivity, less market activity, and, hence, lower profit margins for the capitalist. That’s why nearly every single capitalist, from Jeff Bezos down to Jeff “small business owner,” has fought to end lockdowns and get the U.S. Empire’s “idle” population “back to work” — regardless of the toll on human life, regardless of the mass death that follows. And as for the elderly, the disabled, and persons with preexisting conditions? “If they’re going to die, they’d better do it, and decrease the surplus population,” answer the capitalists; they turn Scrooge’s most infamous line into an explicit call for social mass-murder.
A society organized on the basis of fulfilling the people’s needs, of developing socialism, tells the capitalist to shut up and deal with it, and carries on protecting the population as best it can. This is the case in the People’s Republic of China and other countries carrying forward socialist revolutions, like Cuba and Vietnam.
Unfortunately, these countries are in the global minority.
Most of the world’s countries are not socialist, but capitalist, and many of those under capitalist dictatorships are neo-colonies, dependent on and effectively ruled by foreign imperialists.
The United States and other Western countries are capitalist class-dictatorships. In other words, the property-owning, profiteering classes, especially the monopolists, effectively rule the U.S. and other capitalist countries, because they effectively “own” the government — because they’ve “bought” the ruling parties, down to the last politician, and down to the last county and municipality. Therefore, public policy in the U.S. and other capitalist countries is ultimately decided not by the great majority of the people, but by a small class of monopoly-capitalist rulers.
In line with the will of the capitalists, most of the world’s countries, including the U.S., have adopted, instead of zero-COVID, various policies described as the “living with COVID” approach. This means allowing the disease to spread freely, while also “mitigating” the death toll with vaccinations and various preventative half-measures. The ultimate goal of “living with COVID” approaches is not to eliminate COVID-19, and not to minimize the death toll, but to develop “herd immunity” — which means allowing the population (the “herd”) to get infected en masse, and to thereby develop immunities to the disease. In no uncertain terms, the “herd immunity” approach condemns much of the population — millions, on a global scale — especially the most vulnerable people, to preventable, painful, and pointless deaths. In fact, COVID-19 has proven itself highly adaptable, to such an extent that “herd immunity” is effectively impossible — even if it was desirable.
But talk is cheap, and any windbag can carry on about ideal ethical principles. Let’s get scientific, and compare the real, empirical results: zero-COVID versus living-with-COVID, country by country.
As of November 29, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a country of about 1.412 billion people (currently the most populous country on Earth), has suffered 15,957 reported COVID-19 deaths since the virus was identified. This means that about 1 in every 100,000 Chinese residents, or about 0.001% of the population, have died of COVID-19 — the third-lowest mortality rate by country.
Similarly, in Cuba, a country of about 11.3 million people, has suffered only 8,530 reported COVID-19 deaths; thus, about 1 in every 1,300 Cuban residents, or 0.078% of the population, have died of COVID-19. Cuba has managed to keep mortality rates so low despite the fact that the island is encircled by a U.S. military blockade, which keeps the country in a state of artificial, externally imposed poverty.
Meanwhile, the United States, a country of about 332 million people, has suffered 1,079,477 reported COVID-19 deaths — the most deaths of any country on Earth, by far. This means that about 1 in every 300 U.S. residents, or about 0.3% of the population, have died from COVID-19 — one of the highest mortality rates by country. This is despite the fact that the U.S. is one of the most highly developed countries on Earth, with a very high per capita income and human-development index score.
The situation in the United Kingdom, which has, for the most part, pursued a similarly disastrous “living with COVID” approach, is likewise dire. The U.K., a country of about 67.3 million people, has suffered 212,585 reported COVID-19 deaths; about 1 in every 300 U.K. residents, or, again, about 0.3% of the population, has died of COVID-19. This is despite the fact that the U.K., even more so than the U.S., is a wealthy country with a highly developed economy.
The results are indisputable.
On the one hand, the living-with-COVID approach has been catastrophic, resulting in several million preventable deaths worldwide. The governments of capitalist countries have eagerly sacrificed these millions of lives upon the altar of profit; the political leaders of these countries, from top to bottom, have offered up these millions of human souls to satiate the greed of their monopoly-capitalist masters. The wealthiest billionaires in the world, most of whom are based in the U.S., have more than doubled their net-worth since the beginning of the pandemic, while the vast majority of the world’s population has become poorer — while billions of people around the world continue to sink deeper into manufactured poverty.
On the other hand, the zero-COVID approach, as pursued in the People’s Republic of China and some other countries, has saved millions of lives. The governments of these countries, whatever their flaws, have proactively intervened to sacrifice all other concerns for a single, paramount concern: protecting human life. Drawbacks and legitimate public frustrations notwithstanding, the Communist Party of China’s zero-COVID approach has, by any scientific and humanitarian measure, been an unparalleled success.
The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated, in the most striking colors, the contrast between capitalism, a mode of production centered on the drive for profits, for the accumulation of vast wealth by a few masters of industry and finance, and socialism, the process of developing a new mode of production, centered on the common good of humankind.
Despite the success of zero-COVID, after enduring two years of lockdowns and other measures, much of the Chinese public is understandably frustrated. In the past few months, the Central People’s Government has begun to ease restrictions, but implementation of these decisions at the local level has been slow and, in some cases, improperly handled, and this has heightened public frustrations.
The recent wave of protests were sparked, among other things, by a tragic fire that broke out in a residential building in Ürümqi, the capital of the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Thursday, November 24, killing ten people and injuring at least nine more. In the immediate aftermath of the fire, and even as it raged on, false rumors circulated that China’s zero-COVID policy was to blame for the fatalities — namely, it was rumored that barricades set up to enforce lockdowns in the city had prevented residents from escaping the building, and that pandemic-control staff had blocked the way of firefighters. In fact, residents were not prevented from escaping the building; instead, those who died were trapped in the building by fire and smoke, and were unable to escape. In fact, the firefighters were not blocked by medical staff or by barricades; their approach was blocked by cars parked in front of the building; residents who escaped the building desperately attempted to jumpstart stalled cars and move them, but were unable to do so in time for the firefighters to save everyone. Lastly, in fact, the fire was started by a faulty electrical socket, and was unrelated to the lockdown.
These facts notwithstanding, the tragedy heightened tensions in Ürümqi. City residents and people across China blamed the local government of the Tianshan District of Ürümqi for failing to properly implement the directives of the Central People’s Government to ease restrictions, and for maintaining what are widely perceived by the public as unfair and excessive measures.The resulting wave of country-wide protests have been opportunistically infiltrated by small groups of anti-Communist professional activists, who are attempting (so far, unsuccessfully) to foment counter-revolutionary sentiments. There are indications that these agents provocateurs are backed by the U.S. State Department and its web of extra-governmental pro-imperialist organizations. The “job” of these well-paid agents is to destabilize China under a “pro-democracy” guise; their long-term goal is to instigate a “color revolution” that will dismantle an “enemy state” and replace it with a capitalist regime, thereby securing the interests of Western imperialism. This strategy dates back to before the Cold War.
Fortunately, these efforts are already losing steam. The Central People’s Government is responding to popular demands, local governments are correcting their errors, and thus, as of Tuesday, November 29, the protests are already beginning to disperse.
Meanwhile, videos posted to Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, show scenes in which a few anti-Communist demonstrators have been isolated, dwarfed, and rebuked by the many pro-Communist counter-demonstrators; anti-Communist slogans are being ignored or drowned out.
Contrary to the Western imperialist media’s narrative, the people of China broadly and overwhelmingly support their Communist Party.
Why, then, is the Western imperialist media bombarding us with reports of mass enmity among the Chinese public toward their Communist Party? Why do the imperialist mouthpieces foretell of an imminent counter-revolution, of an imminent collapse of the government of China?
Why, moreover, has “our” mainstream media gone to such lengths to demonize China’s zero-COVID approach?
On the one hand, it is standard practice for the Western imperialist media to insistently and falsely foretell of the defeat of its enemies. The Western world-imperialists are threatened by the rise of China to the position of an emerging global superpower, capable of defending itself and forging international alliances on its own terms. South–South cooperation, carried on under Chinese leadership, is a threat to the Western imperialist hegemony — not least because it demonstrates the possibility of a world order based not on imperialism, on military brutality, economic exploitation, and mass impoverishment, but, instead, on internationalist partnerships, on mutual development and prosperity.
On the other hand, moreover, “our” monopoly-capitalist rulers are reeling from repeated, increasingly frequent, and increasingly severe economic and political crises. The imperialists want to divert the attention of the Western public; they want to redirect our outrage, which should be aimed at “our” rulers, to the governments of foreign “enemy” countries. In the U.S., the imperialists encourage xenophobia, jingoism, and “American exceptionalism” in order to keep the masses ignorant and confused, to keep the masses from recognizing their true enemy, and to thereby prolong the capitalist dictatorship.
The imperialists who rule the U.S. Empire — who rule us directly, and who indirectly rule the billions of people in the colonized countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America — have consigned millions of us to die needlessly, all to enrich themselves.
The Western imperialists, “our own” rulers, are our true enemy.
That is why China and its zero-COVID policy absolutely must be demonized in the Western imperialist media, and by Western imperialist politicians.
If the masses of the U.S. Empire and of the other Western countries realized who our true enemy is, if we began to rise up against the capitalist regime that is mass-murdering, by social neglect and cruelty, millions of our loved ones, our friends, and our neighbours, then the dictatorship of the monopoly-capitalists, their iron rule, their despotic regime of terror and brutality, would soon come crashing down.
