Xi'an's chaotic lockdown reveals indifference of China's uncompromising top-down bureaucracy

The zero-COVID chaotic lockdown in Xi'an city, a major metropolis of 13 million people, has clearly revelaed China's uncompromising top-down bureaucracy's apathy to the plight of the people.

China's political system has become even more top-down under President Xi Jinping, who has demanded absolute loyalty from the vast bureaucracy. Local governments are required to always toe the line of the central party leadership and carry out its instructions to the letter. As a result, the room for healthy policy debates and flexibility in implementation has shrunk drastically, reported CNN.

Xi'an was placed under strict lockdown orders on December 23 in a drastic bid to contain the spread of a fast-growing COVID cluster. But in the days and weeks since, a steady stream of complaints about food shortages, as well as heart-breaking scenes of critical patients -- including heavily pregnant women -- being denied medical care have shocked the nation, reported CNN.

Many were reminded of the traumatic early days of the pandemic in Wuhan, the original epicentre where 11 million residents were confined to their homes for months in 2020.

The tragedies unfolding in Xi'an stem from the top-down political system, which demands absolute loyalty, brooks no dissent and places the interests of the whole far above the rights of individuals,reported CNN.

With Beijing bent on achieving its zero-COVID goal, local officials often pledge to do "whatever it costs" to return cases to zero -- causing great disruption to daily life and at times even harming those they are supposed to protect.

"No one cares what you die of -- other than COVID-19," a user wrote on Chinese social media this week.

Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, describes the phenomenon as "toxic politics."

"Over the past decades, public policy process -- in terms of agenda-setting, policy formulation and implementation -- in China has continued to be top-down, non-participatory, impromptu and mobilizational," he said.

"That has facilitated the local leaders to impose those policy measures to society, which essentially is not in a position to negotiate with the state in policy-making and implementation."

In a way, Xi'an's dysfunction is not an exception. Complaints of disproportionately harsh measures abound during previous prolonged lockdowns in other comparatively smaller areas, from cities in the western region of Xinjiang to the southern border town of Ruili. But in Xi'an, such problems took place in a much more extreme form, on a much larger scale, and garnered much wider attention, reported CNN.

Over the past week, Xi'an authorities have faced a public outcry over draconian lockdown measures that prevented critical patients from urgent medical care. A heavily pregnant woman allegedly miscarried on New Year's Day after being denied entry by a hospital because she didn't have a valid COVID test. A young woman claimed she lost her father to a heart attack following the much-delayed rescue after they were turned down by hospitals for coming from a "medium-risk area" of the city.

To quell public fury, the Chinese Communist Party moved quickly to announce a flurry of punishments: hospital managers were suspended or removed from posts, while the city's key public health officials were issued disciplinary warnings, reported CNN.

Across China, hundreds of local officials have been fired or punished for failing to contain COVID flare-ups in their localities. With the Lunar New Year and the Beijing Winter Olympics fast approaching, such pressure has only intensified.

( With inputs from ANI )