The Chinese have not been allowed to travel freely for two and a half years. It is unclear when they will regain this elementary fundamental right. The government benefits from growing social control.
China’s authorities have hardly issued any new passports since the pandemic. Even within China, travel has become a gauntlet because of “Zero Covid”.
“The base, THE WORKERS, THE PEOPLE, THE WORKERS are exposed to their government like the weather, which cannot be controlled,” Max Frisch wrote in his diary in reference to the citizens of the GDR when he was living in divided Berlin in the 1970s lived. At that time, Frisch regularly traveled to the East, met his publisher there, gave readings and met writer friends. Friends who weren’t allowed to emigrate to the West so easily. In the GDR, this was reserved for a so-called travel elite for a long time.
The same was true then for the Chinese in Communist China under Mao Zedong. They, too, were exposed to their government like the weather: people ate what the state put in front of them. They regurgitate political slogans given to them by the state. They lived where the state wanted. They didn’t even dare to dream of a trip abroad.
China has relapsed into this age of comprehensive social control since the outbreak of the corona pandemic in 2020. Freedom of travel and movement – one of the greatest gains in personal freedom since the country opened up after Mao’s death – has been history for more than two years.
Everyday freedoms strengthened the belief in a good life
The passport was the symbol of this freedom. Only about 10 percent of Chinese have such a document that opens the door to the world for them. Especially since China joined the World Trade Organization at the end of 2001, the Chinese began to travel the world with increasing prosperity and more and more vacation days. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, Chinese tourists spent over $250 billion abroad in 2019.
The increasing everyday freedoms compared to the Mao era have strengthened the confidence of the Chinese in the future of their country. In the end, things got better and better for the individual, because if you have money and free time, you can enjoy life: eat whatever your heart desires, party in bars and clubs, travel to the sea in Thailand.
But since the pandemic, China’s authorities have hardly issued any new passports. They refuse to extend expiring passports. Since this year there have been reports that authorities and companies are even confiscating or invalidating valid passports. A policy long familiar to political dissidents or members of ethnic minorities such as the Uyghurs now applies to the majority of Chinese.
As in the GDR, only a travel elite is allowed to leave the country, for example employees of Chinese companies abroad or students abroad. Visiting relatives abroad is not a valid reason to travel. There are hardly any international flights anymore, the ticket prices are horrendous, and quarantine rules are a nuisance. The fundamental right to return to one’s own country as a national is also restricted for overseas Chinese. Families stay apart.
“Zero Covid” as a pretext for more surveillance
In addition, freedom of movement is also restricted domestically. With QR health codes, arbitrary lockdowns and quarantine rules, Chinese women are being made mad of traveling to their own country. At the same time, control is increasing – the state knows exactly who is traveling where, who reports when and where for testing. The purpose of the arbitrary measures is to cement the feeling of powerlessness of the individual and to show who has the upper hand: the “big brother”.
The pretended reason for this policy is public health, the interests of the collective should be protected from the rights of individuals. But the party and head of state Xi Jinping is probably more concerned with the mental isolation and social control of the people. If Chinese tourists saw with their own eyes how Europeans crossed the borders again without masks and without vaccination certificate controls, how crowded the concert halls and football stadiums are in this country, how empty the test centers – then they would probably question Xi Jinping’s strict zero-tolerance policy.
Overseas Chinese have been doing this for a long time. But if they share on Chinese social media how free and beautiful post-pandemic life is in Switzerland, Germany or Australia, the post will be deleted or the entire account blocked.
Freedom of movement and freedom to emigrate are enshrined as fundamental rights in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which China helped develop. Also in the international pact
on Civil and Political Rights, which China has signed but not ratified, defines these fundamental rights. Once again China’s commitment to these human rights is shown to have nothing to do with reality. Xi Jinping has indefinitely imprisoned his people.