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China’s 20th Party Congress
ChinaDiplomacy

China’s top diplomat hits out at Western critics who ‘distort the truth’ on pandemic controls

  • In state media commentary, Yang Jiechi calls the country’s Covid-19 measures ‘solid and responsible’
  • He also says Beijing will firmly respond to ‘plans or deeds by the US to suppress China’ ahead of party congress

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Yang Jiechi, 72, is expected to retire from the Politburo after this year’s party congress. Photo: AP
Jack Lau
Top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi has accused some in Western countries of using the pandemic to smear China’s social policies, in a commentary published in Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily on Monday.
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He also said Beijing would firmly respond to any “plans or deeds by the United States to suppress China”, as part of efforts to prepare for a smooth party congress later this year. President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a third term as party leader at the twice-a-decade event, which would make him the first to do so since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976.

Yang labelled the party congress as the core of diplomatic work this year, signalling that Beijing’s tough pandemic strategy – including keeping most foreigners out of the country and sacrificing economic growth to keep Covid-19 at bay – could continue at least until later in the year.

The remarks come as China has been at loggerheads with the US and other Western countries over issues ranging from pandemic management and human rights in Xinjiang to the Ukraine war, Taiwan policy and the Aukus security pact.

“Some people in the West are using our pandemic control policies to criticise our country and attack our social system,” Yang said, using language that mirrored Xi’s at a May 5 meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s most powerful political body.

“We should always keep a clear head and unwaveringly adhere to the main policy of ‘dynamic zero-Covid’ and struggle against speech and acts that distort, question or reject our epidemic control policy.”

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China is one of the few countries that still has a zero-Covid policy. It has imposed frequent testing and transport restrictions in Shanghai and Beijing, two of its most affluent and well-governed cities. A strict lockdown in Shanghai left residents disillusioned after they had to resort to bartering to resolve food shortages, resulting in demonstrations, and there have been complaints about difficulties accessing healthcare.

But Yang said China’s Covid-19 measures were “solid and responsible” and had protected the lives of people and contributed to global health. “This is in stark contrast to the behaviour of some in the West that is reckless and distorts the truth.”

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