On China’s Covid front lines, an army of ‘big whites’ stands ready to take the fall

China depends on millions of community officials in trademark white hazmat suits to enforce the nitty-gritty of its shifting zero-Covid policy

But if they are cursed at by an irate public or the first target when things go wrong, that is just the way the system is designed, analyst says

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A community health worker rests by the roadside in a locked down area of Shanghai during a Covid-19 outbreak. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:00am, 5 Dec 2022Updated: 3:27pm, 5 Dec 2022

As zero-Covid protests erupted across China last month, community officials Jane Liu and Adam Chen knew only too well that they needed to tread carefully.

“People are losing patience and they are not afraid to challenge authority and its decisions now,” said Liu, 30, one such worker in Neijiang, in southwestern Sichuan province.

“I can’t always answer people’s questions [about Covid controls] since I don’t have clear instructions from my bosses … But if anything goes wrong – be it failure to contain an outbreak or any mishaps during lockdowns, we are the ones who would take the blame,” she said.

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Chen, a more senior official from Baiyun district in the southern city of Guangzhou, shared Liu’s frustration.

“People shout profanities at me when I go checking on them,” Chen said. “I can understand that because their life is affected.

“But I have to follow my orders and we have been warned that heads will roll if the controls fail because these are still the priorities.”

Liu and Chen are among the millions of Chinese anti-Covid foot soldiers responsible for implementing and policing Beijing’s “dynamic zero-Covid” policies.

On China’s Covid front lines, an army of ‘big whites’ stands ready to take the fall

China depends on millions of community officials in trademark white hazmat suits to enforce the nitty-gritty of its shifting zero-Covid policy But if they are cursed at by an irate public or the first target when things go wrong, that is just the way the system is designed, analyst says

China depends on millions of community officials in trademark white hazmat suits to enforce the nitty-gritty of its shifting zero-Covid policy

But if they are cursed at by an irate public or the first target when things go wrong, that is just the way the system is designed, analyst says