People want the zero-COVID policy to end, and CPC ends it. Even if it might be the wrong decision, people speak their voice, and the party listens. Has any protest in the west actually achieve anything?
Xi said in 2005 (it’s important to read theories, bro)
“No matter how correct our policy is, if it is not understood by the masses, it will be difficult to implement it. If the masses don’t listen, you follow the masses first, and if the masses jump into the fire pit, you also jump down. The masses have awakened and climbed out of the fire pit, and they will eventually follow you. If the masses jump, and you don’t, the relationship between the cadres and the masses will be alienated. You jump together, get emotionally closer, and get the job done. What are the characteristics of mass work under the new situation? An important feature is that the people’s awareness of democracy and self-rights protection has been enhanced.”
The balance certainly has shiftly over a critical point that maintaining zero COVID will prohibitively expensive due to non-compliance.
Indeed, all it takes is a large enough minority becoming really non-compliant to cause major issues, that’s the “critical point”. This is what i mean. It’s not actually that the majority of people are against zero Covid, it’s that a small group can, if sufficiently determined and co-ordinated, essentially hold the rest of the country hostage on pandemic policy. That is not democracy. It is the government responding to the most vocal segment of the population and trying to appease them, instead of attempting to wage a mass media campaign to educate and mobilize people in support of the correct policy that will save more lives.
True democracy is also not about who’s the “majority” tho. It’s about taking everyone’s concerns into the decision making process.
indeed. tyranny of the majority is no true democracy.
I’m obviously not living in China, so maybe my experience and viewpoint should be taken with a mountain of salt. But I’m pretty sure China takes everyone’s voices into account, and is always education and explaining their policies. I think its reasonable that some zero-covid strategies are softened and more use of quarantine and at-home isolation is used right now.