China on Friday pledged to crack down on dissidents spreading "rumors" to "start trouble" as COVID continues to plague the nation following its mandate reversals.
"[We] must safeguard national security and social stability, and resolutely deal according to the law with behaviors that use the pandemic to infiltrate, sabotage, make rumors to start troubles and disrupt social order," security officials said in a meeting held by Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, reported the South China Morning Post.
The BF7 omicron variant causing havoc in China has not only overwhelmed hospitals, crematoriums and funeral homes, but some nations like the U.S., Italy, Japan and India have also instated COVID testing requirements for arrivals from China.
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Some reports have suggested the spike in COVID cases in China could be down to low immunity following years of enduring some of the world’s strictest coronavirus policies, which included mass quarantining, community lock-downs and travel bans.
Though officials have warned it is difficult to understand fully how the virus impacted China as Beijing is believed to have underreported cases and mortality rates since the onslaught of the pandemic three years ago.
But one official in China’s Politburo – the policymaking committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – Chen Wenqing championed how China handled the pandemic and its mandate reversal earlier this month.
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Chen reportedly deemed Beijing’s COVID policies as "scientific, effective" and "totally correct."
Mass protests broke out in November over China’s coronavirus policies in what Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly downplayed in describing them as being led by "mainly frustrated students."
Another top CCP official, ambassador to Paris Lu Shaye, claimed "foreign forces" were behind the protests.
Now that China's COVID policies have begun to be reversed the CCP is looking to clamp down on any attempt to cause further disturbances, including by monitoring online content – a practice that is already routine for the Chinese government.
According to the South China Morning Post, police in Suzhou – a city west of Shanghai – arrested a man this week who claimed to have contracted two different variants on a five-day period.
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