A person is tested for Covid-19 in Yunyan, Guizhou Province, southwest China, on September 5, 2022. YANG WENBIN / AP
Despite the factual silence of the official media, the bus accident that killed twenty-seven passengers and injured twenty others on the night of Saturday, September 17, on a highway in southwest China’s Guizhou province on Sunday, September 18, outraged the Population. The topic has been viewed more than 600 million times on social media. These passengers, although perfectly healthy to begin with, were quarantined more than 200 kilometers from their homes because they lived in Yunyan, a district of Guyang, the regional capital, where positive cases of Covid-19 had been reported . According to Chinese terminology, these were direct or indirect contact cases.
Although bus service is banned in these mountainous areas between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., the accident happened at 2:40 a.m. Therefore, the authorities have not hesitated to break away from their own rules by evacuating people overnight in the name of the Zero Covid strategy.
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In addition, photos show the bus with the driver in a full suit, mask and protective visor. Many Internet users are wondering how it is possible to drive a bus on such devices. Especially since on these buses, in the name of the zero-Covid policy, it is forbidden to open the windows, turn on the air conditioning and, of course, take even the slightest break. It was rumored that the authorities in Guyang decided on September 16th to do everything in their power to stop the spread of the virus before Monday the 19th. seven dead,” wrote one user. “This accident squanders the trust of society as a whole,” testified a second. The accident is all the more unacceptable given that the virus “has only killed two people in Guizhou province since 2020,” recalls a third.
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According to the authorities, around 10,000 people were accommodated in these regional quarantine centers on Sunday. Gao Yu, one of the heads of online media Caixin, posted a comment on social media that could get him into trouble but summed up the population’s anger: “Let’s wake up, let’s get back to normal. Let’s be consistent against systematic testing of the population, zero Covid and closing the country,” he wrote.
Sharp censorship
Meanwhile, Global Times editorial writer Hu Xijin, who tried to put out the fire on Sunday by saying the accident must be demarcated from the zero-Covid policy, was heavily insulted. Among the most popular comments was this one: “Hu Xijin, if you don’t dare criticize the authorities by speaking on behalf of the people, please shut up. Why do you always have to lie to please the bad guys? »
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