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Hong Kong
CNN
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China has banned residents from leaving Xinjiang over a Covid-19 outbreak – just weeks after the far-western region began relaxing restrictions from a stringent extended lockdown, fueling public frustration among those scarred by food shortages and plunging incomes.
On Tuesday, the region – home to 22 million people, many belonging to ethnic minorities – reported 38 new asymptomatic Covid cases.
It was enough to alarm officials, with Xinjiang’s Vice Chairman Liu Sushe vowing to “strengthen the control of cross-regional personnel and insist that people do not leave the region unless it is necessary.”
Liu added that Xinjiang will strengthen control measures in airports, train stations and checkpoints to prevent the virus from spreading to other parts of the country. All outbound trains, inter-provincial buses and most flights will be suspended until further notice.
At the airport in Urumqi, the regional capital, 97% of departing flights and 95% of arriving flights were canceled on Wednesday, according to data from flight tracking company Variflight. Meanwhile, all flights departing Kashgar, a southern oasis town home to Xinjiang’s second-largest airport, were canceled – except for two heading to Urumqi.
China is the world’s last major economy still enforcing strict zero-Covid measures, which aim to stamp out chains of transmission through border restrictions, mass testing, extensive quarantines, and uncompromising snap lockdowns.
“The current round of Covid-19 outbreak is the fastest spreading, most widespread, most infectious and most difficult to control public health emergency in the history of Xinjiang,” Liu said.
Since July 30, Xinjiang has reported a total of 5,790 infections.
Liu said that Xinjiang would make sure to “create a favorable environment” for the success of the 20th Party Congress – a meeting of the party elite later this month, where Xi Jinping is expected to be appointed to a third term in power, further cementing his status as the most powerful Chinese leader in decades.
The run-up to the congress, the most significant event on the Chinese political calendar, is particularly sensitive, with authorities nationwide working to smooth the way and contain any potential hiccups – like an untimely Covid outbreak.
But in Xinjiang, the news of the region’s shuttered borders dismayed many residents for whom the pain of the last lockdown is still fresh.
Many parts of Xinjiang were placed under strict lockdown from August to September, with people in affected areas banned from leaving their homes – causing severe shortages of food, medicine and other basic necessities.
Yang Fei, 34, has been trapped in Urumqi since he traveled there in July to visit his girlfriend, with the city locking down on August 10. He requested a pseudonym, fearing retaliation for speaking out.
As a cancer survivor, Yang had most of his stomach removed and needs to have smaller but more frequent meals – something that became extremely difficult during the extended lockdown due to food shortages.
Over 30 days, he said he received just three deliveries of groceries from community authorities, and fainted from hunger twice. He said he repeatedly called the mayor’s hotline and the police, to no avail; social media calls for help went unanswered. He ran out of food by early September; after not eating for 24 hours, he finally called for an…
Read More: China bans residents from leaving Xinjiang, just weeks after its last Covid lockdown