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TheThirdOutlier t1_iy2grow wrote

Xi’s all like - see

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-Prophet_01- t1_iy2v689 wrote

Yep, seems likely. And this is bad news for everyone since the government has no exit strategy in this.

Giving in or not announcing further lock downs would be a sign of weakness and close to admitting mistakes at this point. Especially after protesters demanded Xi and the party should step down, deescalation seems exceedingly unlikely.

Actually announcing more lock downs though could provoke even fiercer and more widespread protests. People have reached the breaking point it seems. I don't see a way for this to not get ugly.

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_YeezyYeezyWhatsGood t1_iy2vxif wrote

That rotten scum government will kill millions of protestors over admitting they were wrong once, let alone give up an atom’s worth of power.

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Mostofyouareidiots t1_iy38elh wrote

Yep, the weakest most dishonorable people are always the ones obsessively concerned with saving face.

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Lord_Shisui t1_iy3tkbx wrote

Don't we, as in the West, have like 10-15 times more deaths per capita than they do?

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Mostofyouareidiots t1_iy40nvj wrote

I mean, yeah- if you believe the numbers being put out by an authoritarian government whose big motivation is making the rest of the world think they have super low covid numbers.

Xi put a ton of effort into zero covid and massively inconvenienced hundreds of millions of people for years. If he has to change course because of protests then that is incredibly humiliating and makes him look weak. ...which is the last thing the CCP wants.

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Force3vo t1_iy468kk wrote

I love how gullible people apparently have become when it's in favor of authocracies. This "The truth is somewhere in the middle, always" bullshit needs to stop.

China would never in a million years post anything officially that's not implying they are the greatest in everything. Why people choose to believe that I don't understand.

Same with russia and their claims of being decades ahead militarily of the rest of the world. If your source has shown zero interest in truth stop believing them...

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Tamrannman t1_iy5teht wrote

The truth is somewhere in the middle applies to alot of things BUT and thats an astronomically huge but, in order for it to apply the "argument" or whatever has to be where both sides argue in good faith and with the same assumptions. Sad to see so many just eating up the words of authoritative voices just because they are authoritative. "They are very authoritative, so they must know what they are talking about" or whatever :(

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Trayeth t1_iy4gxdb wrote

Not sure where you got that. Even Tiananmen only a few thousand died.

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SsibalKiseki t1_iy4cp8m wrote

The more chaos in China, the more time Taiwan has to prepare for the inevitable invasion. Sounds like a net positive.

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TequillaShotz OP t1_iy4m36k wrote

Unless Xi views an invasion as the only way to divert attention from this mess. Historically, governments often use wars to divert attention from domestic failures. Create an external enemy.

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tuanmi t1_iy59pra wrote

> the government has no exit strategy in this.

> Giving in or not announcing further lock downs would be a sign of weakness and close to admitting mistakes at this point.

Not sure why you think that. The obvious out is to scrap the Zero Covid policy ("the people have spoken!"), and unleash the virus. If protests persist, the protesters are the most at risk and the ones disproportionately affected. The hospitals can refuse treatment.

More importantly, once people start dying from Covid, they now have a real, "legitimate" target to vent their anger—protesters against Zero Covid. The government is no longer responsible for the deaths and sufferings ("people don't want Zero Covid, and we listened"), and might even tacitly support online doxxing on the protesters to make it easier for the grieving families to get their revenge.

If you are paying attention, some of their mouthpieces are already saying Omicron is not that toxic and lockdowns are no longer necessary.

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