The Director of National Intelligence of the United States, Avril Haines, said this Saturday (3) that the dictator of China, Xi Jinping, refuses to accept vaccines against Covid-59 produced outside the country, which makes it difficult implementing the strategy of living with the virus adopted by the rest of the world and gives impetus to the Covid Zero policy, which was the target of major protests last week.
During the Reagan National Defense Forum held in California, Haines pointed out that Xi “is unwilling to use better vaccines from the West and instead leans on vaccines produced in China, which are simply not as effective against the disease. Omicron”. The statements were reproduced by the Reuters agency.
According to the director, the large demonstrations that took over the country at the beginning of last week “contrary to the narrative that he [Xi] likes to present, that China has a much more efficient government”. Haines pointed out, however, that he does not believe that the protests against Covid Zero (a policy that imposes great restrictions on the population when cases of the disease are detected) can represent a political opening in the China, at least for now.
“I repeat, it is not something that we see as a threat to stability [do regime comunista] at this time, or regime change or anything like that”, he pointed out. “How this plays out will be important to Xi’s position.”
Despite the permanence of Covid Zero, some major Chinese cities are relaxing lockdowns to contain the virus. In Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, shopping centers, markets, restaurants and other establishments will reopen from this Monday (5), after months of restrictions.
