China BriefingGuiyang’s zero-Covid tragedy evokes China’s old mantra of putting politics in command

To really understand the extreme lengths that China is willing to go to as it seeks to crush Covid-19, and some of the seemingly unreasonable decisions that it makes towards that end, there’s a three-character Chinese phrase you should always bear in mind: jiang zheng zhi (emphasise politics).

The Communist Party’s nearly 97 million members know the phrase all too well, as it’s invariably invoked whenever higher-ranking officials or the central government want lowly bureaucrats or regional authorities to complete a certain task – no matter how difficult, and whatever the cost.

With this consequences-be-damned approach in mind, the recent tragedy in southwestern Guizhou province should have come as no surprise. In the early hours of the morning on September 18, a bus transporting 47 people from provincial capital Guiyang to a quarantine facility some 240km away overturned on an expressway, killing 27 of those on board.

News of the crash understandably triggered a national uproar, as a torrent of anger and grief was unleashed online about China’s extreme zero-Covid policy and the devastating impact it has had on people’s lives.