China ushered in the Lunar Year of the Ox, and before the festival, leaders made frequent moves to create a festive atmosphere. Xi Jinping went to Qianxi, Guizhou to “promote the revitalization of the countryside”, “check out the folklore activities of ethnic minorities during the Spring Festival” and “extend New Year wishes to people of all ethnic groups across the country”, Li Keqiang went to Yuncheng, Shanxi He also visited the local Chinese New Year market and paid cash for Chinese New Year goods on the spot.
Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang every year on the eve of the Spring Festival to visit local areas and pay New Year’s greetings to the people, but the two have different styles. Xi Jinping likes to visit poor people “lift the lid”, local cadres do a good job, that poor household pot is destined to be fragrant, fish full of pot, because “can not let the general secretary disappointed”; as for Li Keqiang, pro-people activities seem more casual, look at the market, ask the price. He bought two large buns, two apples, two “fortune” characters and pastries. He also wished everyone “the year of the ox and the horse, good plowing”. Then he handed over the New Year’s goods he had just bought to the poor households. Li Keqiang, who just became premier on January 27, 2014, visited Jinpo Village in Ankang, Shaanxi Province, and also called Yang Xiufeng, a migrant worker who was working outside, who could not return Home, and brought his Family candy and snacks to comfort them.
The official media often praise the leaders’ pro-people gestures with such topics as “Xi Jinping lifted the lid of a pot and Li Keqiang bought New Year’s Eve goods”. The government’s response to the report is that it is not a good idea to use it as a showcase, but at least this year’s visit is said to be out of character. In Beijing, where the two leaders are based, thousands of migrant workers and people working abroad are unable to go home to visit their relatives this year because of the severe Epidemic prevention measures, and some netizens sighed: “Why do we have to go to Guizhou and Shanxi? Why bother to go to Guizhou and Shanxi? It’s better to console the ones under our noses”.
The new epidemic in China is getting lighter and lighter, with only about a hundred cases per day, and recently it has dropped to a few dozen cases, and most of them are said to be “imported cases”, but the official measures are extremely harsh, with all kinds of measures being taken, stipulating that those who return to their hometowns must be isolated for 7-14 days, and some of them are even subject to 14+7, and they have to be tested several times. It is not clear how many days will be quarantined after returning to the city after visiting relatives after the holiday. The Chinese call it “the strictest homecoming order in history”, this is not to mention that various local layers of additional codes, so that the homecoming holiday is only two or three weeks at most, do not play the idea of homecoming before it is too late! The people began to complain, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said that “seemingly strict prevention is actually lazy government”; China health Construction Commission and blame the local “layers of code”, should not be “chaotic action”, to The Chinese Health Construction Commission also blamed localities for “adding layers and layers of codes” and not “acting indiscriminately” to “make Spring Festival full of temperature”. But the public suspects that this is nothing more than bureaucrats passing the buck to each other and letting off empty promises. In any case, from the published traffic volume, the number of people returning to their hometowns has been greatly reduced this year, and some official media have even claimed that this is a conscious response to the government’s call to “spend the New Year in place”.
AFP 11 news from Beijing said, “As usual, go home to celebrate the Year of the Ox, regardless of the strictest order to return home? Or do you want to stay in Beijing alone, as the government has called for you to do? Many foreigners working in Beijing are caught in a dilemma”. The Lunar New Year, which begins on the 12th, is the most important holiday for Chinese people, and normally hundreds of millions of Chinese working abroad take advantage of the festival to go home for a reunion, the report said. China has largely eliminated the new coronavirus, despite a few more confirmed cases here and there. But anxiety in Beijing seems to be bucking the trend.
In Beijing, the city government is asking residents to avoid all “non-essential travel” during the Chinese New Year, and to deter those who dare to return home for the holidays, authorities are using a carrot-and-stick approach, offering bonuses to those who stay and increased testing and quarantine Time to those who leave. A Gansu native Hou Shibai, who works as a courier in Beijing, said, “To go home, I have to do a nucleic acid test and get a certificate. Very troublesome. He finally decided to stay in Beijing with his wife and daughter for the holidays.
Various restrictive policies and procedures played a role, with AFP citing Beijing government sources that rail passenger traffic was down 80 percent from the same period last year. At the Beijing train station, usually crowded during the festival, seats were now empty in rows and rows, and the ticket office was nowhere to be seen in the long lines that the passing ide was able to make.
Beijing’s controls are perhaps the toughest, with a pre-trip negative nucleic acid certificate required to enter or return to Beijing, a 7-14 day quarantine upon arrival, and a two-week “medical observation” period. This is only the case in Beijing, but travel restrictions have been imposed throughout China, and even many villages have imposed a minimum two-week quarantine on all those returning to visit relatives.
The courier said that he had to be quarantined when he returned to his hometown, and he might be quarantined again when he returned to Beijing, even though his Parents, siblings and friends were expecting the family to return for a reunion, and he canceled his trip to see his family. The family of three shared a house with others in the north of Beijing to welcome the Year of the Ox in a chilly atmosphere. “The atmosphere is far worse than back home,” Hou Shibai told reporters ……”
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