Calls China's Economic Development Will Be Affected, President Xi Jinping Values COVID-19 Strategy Is Correct And Effective

President China Xi Jinping. (Wikimedia Commons/Palácio do Planalto)

JAKARTA - Chinese President Xi Jinping assessed that the Zero-COVID strategy he chose to deal with the corona virus pandemic was correct and effective, even though there would be costs and impacts to be borne, until the WHO questioned it.

Citing Reuters from the official Xinhua news agency Wednesday, June 29, President Xi Jinping said the ruling Communist Party's strategy to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic was "correct and effective" and must be adhered to.

China, with its large population, would suffer "unimaginable consequences" if it adopted a "lying flat" strategy, the news agency said, citing President Xi during a visit on Tuesday to the central city of Wuhan, where the virus was first reported.

China will accept some temporary impact on economic development rather than allowing people's lives and health to be harmed, President Xi said.

China's zero-tolerance approach to rapid lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines has protected large parts of its population from COVID-19 over the past two years.

However, it has attracted increasing dissent as lockdowns have become more stringent and frequent amid the rapid deployment of Omicron variants.

Illustration of a COVID-19 test in China. (Wikimedia Commons/Shwangtianyuan)

China's uncompromising "zero COVID" policy has placed hundreds of millions of consumers and workers under various restrictions, at a time when the world is lifting them to 'live with the virus', even as infections spread.

Earlier, the Head of the World Health Organization (WHO) was being censored on China's internet, after questioning the sustainability of the country's Zero-COVID policy. Censorship on Weibo and WeChat, China's two largest social media platforms, targeted comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressing his rare disagreement with Beijing's policies.

"When we talk about the zero-Covid strategy, we don't think that it is sustainable, given the behavior of the virus now and what we anticipate in the future," Tedros said at a news conference Tuesday, citing increased transmission of Omicron.

"We have discussed this issue with Chinese experts and we have indicated the approach will not be sustainable. I think change will be very important."

The criticism from Tedros, who has been accused of being too close to China at the start of the pandemic, comes just days after Chinese leader President Xi Jinping vowed to double down on policies and "resolutely fight" against all criticism.

Tedros' comments, while in line with the judgment of most scientists, also angered Beijing, which called them "irresponsible."

"We hope that relevant people can view China's epidemic prevention and control policies objectively and rationally, learn more about the facts and refrain from making irresponsible statements," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.