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On February 15, simply weeks earlier than the opening of the 14th Nationwide Individuals’s Congress (NPC) legislative session in Beijing, hundreds of Chinese language retirees within the cities of Wuhan and Dalian held massive demonstrations towards proposed reforms to the general public medical health insurance system. These adopted an preliminary demonstration on February 8 in Wuhan, which was largely peaceable: demonstrators shouted slogans, sang “The Internationale,” and promised that they’d return every week later if Wuhan authorities didn’t deal with their considerations in regards to the reforms, which many retired employees worry will lead to steep cuts to their medical advantages.
At The New York Occasions, Keith Bradsher, Daisuke Wakabayashi, and Claire Fu reported on the heightened police presence on the February 15 protests:
Video footage that circulated on-line indicated that enormous crowds gathered round Zhongshan Park in Wuhan, because the police tried to divide them by imposing barricades. When cops tried to push the crowds again, older women and men refused to again off and shouted in officers’ faces. Some sang songs like “The Internationale,” an anthem employed by each the ruling Communist Get together and by protesters, who’ve used it to counsel that the social gathering has strayed from its ideological roots.
In Wuhan, seven witnesses to the protest and two different residents described what they referred to as a big demonstration in the course of the day. One witness mentioned he had seen cops roughly detain protesters and lead them away.
On Thursday, a pair hundred seniors gathered in teams on the identical park at noon, angrily discussing their unhappiness with the medical health insurance coverage adjustments. Safety was tight, with plainclothes officers milling round, filming individuals as they talked. Practically 100 uniformed officers stood behind crowd management limitations. [Source]
The Washington Submit’s Christian Shepherd described the protest scenes in Dalian and Wuhan, the place authorities suspended metro service to at least one station in an try to discourage residents from becoming a member of the demonstrations:
As promised, [the protesters] crammed central Zhongshan park and close by streets Wednesday, with a second group gathering a few blocks away by the Wuhan Union Hospital.
This time, the authorities reacted extra forcefully. In an obvious try to curb attendance, the town’s metro automobiles didn’t cease on the nearest station. Video confirmed shoving matches as police tried to include the protests. Some tried to climb limitations to flee the melee however had been pulled again by uniformed officers.
[…] Concurrently the standoff escalated in Wuhan, one other demonstration was starting in Dalian, a metropolis of seven million on China’s northeast coast, the place tons of of aged wrapped up in puffy winter jackets descended on Individuals’s Sq. to protest the identical adjustments. [Source]
Emily Feng, reporting for NPR, famous simply how uncommon such public protests are in China, and defined the explanations retirees had been prepared to danger popping out for the demonstrations:
To retirees, it seems to be like native governments are dipping into residents’ private well being financial savings accounts to cowl price range shortfalls.
[…] At massive demonstrations this week, protesters argued that transferring funds from their accounts can be tantamount to theft of personal property.
“That is our cash, earned by way of blood and sweat,” one retiree from the central metropolis of Wuhan mentioned in a recorded telephone name with the provincial medical insurance coverage authorities, that has been widely shared online. “I complain as a result of I imagine in our authorities and our Communist Get together to discover a path ahead to resolve this.” [Source]
In Wuhan, retired residents estimated that the insurance coverage reforms would cut back their month-to-month private medical allowances from 260 yuan ($38) per thirty days to 83 yuan ($12). Many cash-strapped native governments—together with Guangdong, Shaanxi and Hunan provinces—have proposed comparable insurance coverage reforms. Reuters reported that Chinese language provinces, already dealing with slowing financial progress and revenues, “spent at the very least 352 billion yuan ($51.6 billion) on COVID-19 containment in 2022,” including to the pressure.
Reporting for The Monetary Occasions, Solar Yu described retirees’ worries about greater deductibles and restricted protection, and makes an attempt by native governments to assuage their considerations:
The Wuhan metropolis authorities mentioned final 12 months that the adjustments would “successfully” ease individuals’s healthcare burdens.
However the protesters argue that the brand new outpatient insurance coverage comes with a excessive deductible and low protection, that means it’ll value them extra to see a physician.
“That is theft,” mentioned a protester in Wuhan. “The federal government needs to make use of my cash to subsidise others with out my permission.”
[…] Dozens of cities have additionally issued statements in latest days stressing the reforms’ advantages. [Source]
Stories of the protests in Wuhan and Dalian have been closely censored on-line. A China Digital Occasions evaluation discovered that many associated hashtags had been banned on Weibo, and makes an attempt to seek for them yielded error messages corresponding to “Primarily based on related legal guidelines, laws, and insurance policies, this matter can’t be displayed” or “Sorry, no related outcomes had been discovered.” The banned hashtags embrace #Wuhan Medical Insurance coverage (#武汉医保), #Wuhan Zhongshan Park (#武汉中山公园), #Wuhan Medical Insurance coverage Reform (#武汉医保改革), #Wuhan Medical Insurance coverage Reform Main Adjustment (#武汉医保改革重大调整), and #Is There a Compensation Plan for Shrinking Balances in Medical Insurance coverage Private Accounts? (#医保个人账户缩水能不能有补偿方案).
This strict censorship has not prevented netizens from expressing assist for the latest protests, which have been led primarily by senior residents and retirees Some have even dubbed them the “White Hair Motion” (白发运动, Baifa Yundong), in a nod to the time period “White Paper Motion” (白纸运动, Baizhi Yundong), which referred to the clean white sheets of paper held up by protesters throughout final autumn’s nationwide demonstrations towards draconian COVID controls and political repression.
CDT Chinese language editors compiled and archived some on-line feedback, a collection of that are translated under, in regards to the proposed insurance coverage reforms and the February 15 protest in Wuhan:
trailblazer_L：#Wuhan Zhongshan Park, #10 Questions Concerning the Chemical Air pollution Incident in Ohio, #10 Questions Concerning the Mass Capturing Incident within the U.S., #10 Questions Concerning the Hypocrisy of American Democracy, however once I search for information from China … silence.
韩若冰与小天使：After I looked for Wuhan’s Zhongshan Park or details about medical system reform, I discovered that many Weibo articles have been deleted, or blocked, or suppressed by the powers above. It’s tough, actually tough. And but these grannies and grandpas are so courageous, a lot braver than me …
爬啊爬啊过山河：#Medical Insurance coverage Protection (#医保报权) Immediately, many grandfathers and grandmothers gathered in Wuhan’s Zhongshan Park. In standing up for his or her rights, they defended the rights of everybody. What’s this nonsense about medical insurance coverage reform? It’s simply that the federal government has no cash, in order that they’re making an attempt to place the squeeze on atypical residents, however they’re making an attempt to decorate it up as “reform” so we humble chives don’t get too indignant.
断了的弦—-：The grandmas and grandpas had been pretty much as good as their phrase. They mentioned they’d converge on Wuhan’s Zhongshan Park on the fifteenth, they usually did. Superior. [Chinese]
A Weibo article about insurance coverage reform by iFeng.com additionally drew a lot of feedback, a lot of them detrimental, in regards to the proposed adjustments. Earlier than the feedback part was ultimately disabled, CDT Chinese language editors archived a number of the responses:
司马3忌：”Why can we nonetheless encounter such nice resistance [to proposed insurance reforms]?” That is disguised as some deep philosophical query, however the author already is aware of the reply. Reforms that have an effect on individuals’s livelihoods often contain sacrificing the pursuits of these on the backside rungs of society, and that’s why resistance is inevitable.
种豆得瓜谢不谦：This medical insurance coverage reform should be straight motivated by the necessity to pay for the previous few years of mass nucleic acid testing, proper?
HJY就是666：Medical insurance coverage subsidies have shrunk, the retirement age has been raised, however there’s nonetheless loads of money to assist the Belt and Highway Initiative. As an alternative of exhibiting off your muscle tissues, how about first enhancing individuals’s livelihoods? [Chinese]
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