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Chinese President Xi Jinping is loosening health restrictions following anti-communist protests against pandemic lockdowns, but is continuing the Chinese Communist Party’s mass campaign against the rapidly spreading coronavirus by invoking Mao Zedong’s 1950s campaign to eliminate fleas and flies.
The Chinese leader, who has faced mounting internal dissent over his handling of the pandemic in recent weeks, addressed the nation’s loosening of disease controls for the first time on Monday.
China needs to launch a new campaign similar to the Patriotic Health Campaign that stretched from 1950 to 1951, Mr. Xi said.
The Patriotic Health Campaign sought to eradicate “poisonous insects” the Chinese Communist Party alleged were spread to China as part of U.S. germ warfare programs during the Korean War.
“At present, our country’s COVID prevention and control efforts are facing new circumstances and a new mission,” Mr. Xi said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The Chinese leader said the nation should conduct “a more targeted Patriotic Health Movement” — a reference to the 1950s effort — that would seek to “effectively guarantee the lives and health of the people.”
Mr. Xi has backed off draconian pandemic controls that sparked nationwide protests against his rule and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the dynamic “Zero-COVID” campaign that sought to tout party prowess in halting the spread of the virus.
China currently is experiencing massive COVID-19 outbreaks around the country with millions of people infected.
Lockdowns and quarantines were enforced by police in white biohazard suits called “Big Whites” by Chinese opposed to the crackdowns.
Mr. Xi’s new mass campaign against the pandemic is being dubbed the “Healthy China Initiative.”
China watchers say Mr. Xi has been weakened by the failure of his regime’s zero-COVID policy in the face of popular resistance.
His reference to the Patriotic Health Campaign follows Chinese government efforts to deny the pandemic began in Wuhan, China, and to blame the United States for causing the disease outbreak.
During the winter of 1951, the People’s Daily, the official CCP newspaper, sought to link domestic epidemics in China to North Korean reports on the use of U.S. germ warfare in Korea.
North Korea claimed it had discovered American germ bombs that released germ weapon-infected flies and fleas.
In response, the Patriotic Health Campaign required all Chinese to eliminate rats, fleas and flies, and to remove garbage, and develop clean water.
Mr. Xi’s reference to the 1950s campaign highlights continuing Chinese propaganda that has sought to assert the U.S. military brought the virus to China.
The virus began in Wuhan and limited evidence on its origin so far points to either a leak from the Chinese military-linked Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was conducting dangerous research, or from an infected animal that has yet to be identified.
