The White House Monday expressed support for peaceful protests around China — but administration officials did not say whether Beijing should change the strict “zero-Covid” policies that drove the weekend demonstrations.
More than a dozen street protests have shaken several Chinese cities in recent days after a deadly fire killed 10 people in a locked-down apartment complex in northwestern China's Xinjiang region, home of the Muslim Uyghur people. That fire sparked widespread anger over the nation's strict Covid controls, which led to protests in the capital, Beijing; in the economic hub of Shanghai; in the eastern city of Hangzhou; in the southern cities of Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu; in the central cities of Lanzhou and Nanjing and the far western city of Korla.
But at the White House, the reaction has been measured.
“Our message to peaceful protesters around the world is the same and consistent: people should be allowed the right to assemble and to peacefully protest policies or laws or dictates that they take issue with,” said John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council.
But, Kirby added, the administration was careful in discussing Beijing's strict management of the pandemic, which has led to school and business closures and kept tens of millions of people house-bound.
“Lockdown is not a policy that we support here,” he said. “People in China have concerns about that, and they're protesting that, and we believe they should be able to do that peacefully.”
People gathered on the street in Shanghai on November 27, 2022, where protests against China's zero-Covid policy took place the night before following a deadly fire in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region.
On Capitol Hill, US lawmakers are more blunt, highlighting protesters' complaints about Chinese government censorship, symbolized by pieces of blank white paper.
“We're seeing the Chinese people stand up against the Draconian approach of the Communist Party of China, and concerned not only about Covid policies but also about censorship,” Sen Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, told VOA. “As I've said, my beef is not with the Chinese people, I think the Chinese people are expressing their desire to have more freedom and less censorship in their own country, and I stand with them.”
Republican lawmakers call for overt support by the White House for the Chinese demonstrators.
“The Biden administration's response has been worse than expected,” said Sen Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas. “The CCP should know that one way or another, in the coming months or the coming years, the United States will hold accountable every CCP official responsible for atrocities against these protesters.”
A policeman confronts a protester holding flowers during a protest on the street in Shanghai, China, November 27, 2022. On Monday, authorities eased anti-virus rules in scattered areas but affirmed China's severe “zero-Covid” strategy.
A State Department spokesperson told VOA that diplomatic efforts would focus on fighting the pandemic.
“We've said that [China's] ‘zero Covid' is not a policy we are pursuing here in the United States,” said the official, who spoke on anonymity as they were not authorized to be named. “And as we've said, we think it's going to be very difficult for the People's Republic of China to contain this virus through their ‘zero Covid' strategy.
Kirby said that the US h not offered any of its vaccines to China.
“We have not received any requests or interest by China to receive our vaccines,” he said Monday.
China's government has pushed back against the charge that the apartment fire, which happened in the northwestern Xinjiang region, is related to their pandemic policies.
“It's true that on social media there are forces with ulterior motives that relate this fire with the local response to Covid-19,” said Zhao Lijian, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
He did not say when the government's policy would end.
