COVID-19: Beijing is essentially in lockdown but authorities won’t use that word
In Beijing, business after business is bolted shut.
The authorities won’t use the word, but this city is essentially in lockdown.
In a number of districts across the capital, all non-essential shops are shut, restaurants and cafes are open for takeaway only and people are being asked to work from home.
COVID cases here have tripled in a week, they are at the highest level ever recorded.
While many have greeted the latest rules with weary acceptance there is clearly a price being paid by people for nearly three years of restrictions.
Leading shopping districts stood eerily silent and traditional huntong alleys, usually teeming with people, had just a trickle.
Mr Zheng’s coffee shop was still open, but only for takeaways.
“Business has not been good this year and it’s even worse recently, because of the pandemic,” he says, “You see, there are no people in this huntong.”
Many businesses are only open for takeaways
But elsewhere in the country, the anger goes much further.
In the central city of Zhengzhou workers at Foxconn, Apple’s biggest assembly plant, clashed violently with police.
Videos on Chinese social media show workers throwing large objects at authorities and smashing surveillance cameras.
There has been a COVID outbreak at the plant, many workers have been unable to leave and some are now saying there has been insufficient food and promised bonus payments have been delayed.
One video shows numerous police and workers in hazmat suits beating a worker with batons.
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iPhone factory workers beaten by police
Elsewhere, being stuck at home is wearing people down. In the city of Chongqing, Zheng Meng took a video of himself attempting to leave his apartment.
“You can’t leave,” a pandemic worker tells him, “this compound is high risk”.
It is rare for someone in China to speak so plainly, but he was very clear in his opinion that China is getting this wrong.
“The World Cup makes the government embarrassed because everybody at home is still watching the TV and there’s no masks for the other people,” he says.
“Why are the Chinese different from the rest of the world? Because our body condition is weaker? Or the Omicron in China is stronger? There’s supposed to be a reasonable reason, there’s no reason at all. They just force us to stay at home.”
Just a week or so ago there had been real hope that things might start easing up. The government has called for the rules to be ‘optimised’, for the response to be more targeted and less blanket.
But it’s faltered in the face of surging infections.
The problem is that while local government authorities have been instructed to try and ease COVID restrictions, it seems they have not been instructed to hold their nerve when cases inevitably rise.
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‘Situation is getting worse across China’
Thus, under immense pressure to keep numbers low, they’ve resorted to the familiar tactics of closing things down.
It illustrates the fundamental trap of China’s zero COVID agenda – there is no way out of it without rising infections and deaths, and the government has spent three years telling people that is unacceptable.
There are many people in China who support zero COVID, plenty are afraid of the virus.
It may be one obstacle in the coming months for a regime that still faces many.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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