Shortly before the start of the Chinese Spring Festival, Xi Jinping expressed concern about the corona situation in rural areas.

"The medical conditions in the rural areas are comparatively weak," the state and party leader said in a video message from the Hall of Great People, which was circulated by state media on Wednesday evening.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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Since the "optimization" of disease control measures, he is particularly concerned about the elderly and rural farmers, Xi said.

Optimization is the euphemistic term officially used to describe the abrupt departure from the zero Covid policy on December 7th.

Since then, hundreds of millions of Chinese have contracted the coronavirus.

This raised the question for many citizens as to why the measures were not relaxed last summer and why no recognizable preparations for the opening were made.

On the other hand, Xi Jinping described the actions of the past three years as "the correct choice".

In this way, China warded off several waves of different virus variants and reduced the proportion of severe courses and deaths.

"Valuable time" was gained to optimize the measures, Xi claimed.

However, the time was not used to adequately vaccinate the elderly population.

Xi praises work under 'extreme stress'

It was the first time since the prevention measures were abolished that Xi Jinping made a detailed statement on the corona situation.

He presented himself as the father of the country who was concerned about the well-being of his citizens.

The Xinhua News Agency highlighted that Xi first contacted medical staff at University Hospital in northeast China's city of Harbin via video link.

He praised the doctors and nurses who had had to put up with long working hours under high pressure and extreme workloads when treating patients in view of the recent corona wave.

Xinhua also reported that the head of state and party leader was later contacted by residents of a nursing home, workers on an oil rig, staff at a long-distance train station, vendors at a wholesale market and residents of a "minority village" in different parts of the country.

What is unusual about this is that the party leader, unlike usual, did not make any on-site visits.

So far, Xi has always used the Spring Festival to present himself as a man of the people by mingling with the (carefully selected) people.

A few days ago, a book was published that “relives the moments when Xi Jinping visited people's homes”.

Does the President fear contagion?

Apparently he was aware that turning away from previous practice would raise questions and, for some, the assumption that he was afraid of getting infected.

This is probably why Xi addressed the issue directly.

"In previous years, during this time, I would go down to the grassroots to talk to everyone and see what the problems were," he said at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

This year he opted for a video connection "to see more places, east and west, north, south and in the center".

Despite all the concerns, Xi's main message was that there is "a light of hope" at the end of the tunnel.

The pandemic has entered a “new phase”.

Want to say: People should look ahead and no longer ask critical questions about past failures.

As expected, his interlocutors brought him only positive news.

The director of the hospital in Harbin said the number of seriously ill corona patients was declining.

There are enough beds and enough medication.

Xi gave the order to increase the production and supply of medicines to treat severe corona cases.

Authorities admit "possible underestimation" of deaths

Xi only marginally commented on deaths related to Corona.

The government has officially spoken of almost 60,000 corona-related deaths in hospitals since they opened in December.

Experts assume that the real number could be up to ten times higher.

The population is also skeptical.

Everyone knows families who have lost loved ones.

The pressure to announce more realistic figures is increasing.

The disease control authority felt compelled to assure that data on excess mortality would be collected.

This would also include people who died at home from Corona.

The authority admitted a "possible underestimation" of the deaths.

However, the publication of excess mortality, which is also required by the World Health Organization, requires more time.

In his video message, Xi Jinping repeated the perseverance slogan he had already spread during the zero Covid lockdowns: "Perseverance means victory".

That should be no consolation for people who have lost relatives in the past few weeks.

The Communist Party's victory rhetoric had already alienated mourners in Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic.

At that time, the city where the pandemic began was declared a "hero city".

The past year has not been "easy," Xi admitted.

Nevertheless, "new achievements on all fronts" have been achieved.

The fact that he commented on the corona situation in such detail at all could be an indication that he is under pressure to justify himself within the party.