A bus that should have taken 47 people to a quarantine facility crashed in the Chinese province of Guizhou on Sunday. 27 people died. The event sparked criticism of the Chinese government’s strict corona policy.
Medical workers in protective suits test people in China’s Guizhou province.
A bus accident in China’s southwestern province of Guizhou on Sunday triggered widespread criticism of the government’s strict corona policy. The bus involved in the accident should have brought 47 people to a quarantine facility on Sunday night. On the highway between Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou Province, and the city of Libo, the vehicle rolled over for reasons that have not yet been explained. 27 people died and 20 other passengers were injured.
While the deputy mayor of the city of Guiyang promised on Sunday to investigate the incident and hold those responsible accountable, anger is growing in society at the accident and thus dissatisfaction with China’s corona policy. The government in Beijing is still pursuing a strict zero-Covid strategy. Many Chinese have been suffering from the strict restrictions for months.
For the 47 passengers on board the bus, it was also not clear whether they were infected with Covid themselves, had close contact with infected people or just lived in the same house as other Covid-infected people. As part of the corona restrictions in China, the residents of entire housing estates are often taken to quarantine facilities, some of which are hundreds of kilometers away.
Bus as a symbol of displeasure
On Sunday evening, the accident became the hot topic on the Weibo platform, the Chinese Twitter counterpart. A hashtag related to the incident has been viewed more than 320 million times on the social network. Many have called for the government to ease restrictions.
Other users expressed concern that they could easily find themselves in a similar situation. “What proof do you have that one day you won’t be sitting on this bus at night?” he quotes “Guardians” one of the most popular posts on Weibo. ‘Who says we’re not all on this bus late at night? We’re clearly all on this horrible, dark bus,” reads another.
As the “Guardian” further reports, users also distributed photos and videos showing the bus driver in Covid protective equipment and asked whether this made driving more difficult. The posts could not be verified. On Sunday evening, the bus accident then disappeared from the top topics of the platform, most of the posts seem to have been deleted.
The 27 fatalities from the bus accident are also significant because they compare to just two Covid deaths that Guizhou province has seen since the pandemic began. According to the National Health Commission, the province reported 364 local infections on Sunday. Nationwide, China recorded 807 Covid infections.
Xi Jinping and the strict Corona policy
Growing public discontent with the government’s zero-Covid strategy poses a challenge for President Xi Jinping. The Chinese president is expected to secure a third term as head of state at the party congress in October. He has made the strict corona restrictions a cornerstone of his leadership. Beijing sees the zero-Covid strategy as key to preventing deaths from the virus like those seen in other parts of the world.
The city of Chengdu in the southwestern province of Sichuan was only released from a two-week lockdown on Monday. Thanks to the early measures, the authorities there were able to successfully contain an outbreak. Despite the enormous economic and social costs, Xi Jinping is likely to sell the lockdown as a success at the party congress in October.
While the rest of the world is trying to live with the virus permanently, a third term in office for Xi Jinping is unlikely to mean any easing of corona restrictions in China in the foreseeable future.