Breakingviews: Protests leave China facing a terrible trilemma
HONG KONG, Nov 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) – Officials’ muddled response to spiking Covid cases has set off three consecutive days of demonstrations spanning cities and social classes. The government, having wasted two years prematurely congratulating itself for fending off the pandemic, is now unprepared to address the interrelated economic, health, and political crises resulting from its overconfidence.
The protests could prove the most critical test of President Xi Jinping’s rule. Although hard to measure, so far the crowds appear to be smaller in size than in 1989, when the government used tanks to crush a mass protest movement of disaffected college students and factory workers angered by official corruption, stagnant wages and 18% inflation. Some are shouting for Xi’s dismissal.