Look to future, stay focused, says Xi in New Year address

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of maintaining a “strategic focus” in his 2022 New Year address and of being mindful of “potential risks” in the Communist Party’s long-term vision to turn China into a global power. Xi in 2021 declared that China had achieved its aim of building a so-called “moderately prosperous” society, a milestone on its road to becoming a global leader in 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.“We must always keep a long-term perspective, remain mindful of potential risks, maintain strategic focus and determination, and ‘attain the broad and great while addressing the delicate and minute’,” Xi said in a televised speech. China, where the coronavirus was first identified in late 2019, has placed a focus on its achievements past and present, including quickly bringing Covid-19 under control as its economy lost steam after rebounding from a pandemic slump and as relations with the United States plumbed new lows.China’s industrial and tech hub of Xian reported more than 100 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, taking its tally of locally transmitted infections to the highest in any Chinese city this year. Xian reported 155 new local cases for Dec 29, official data showed. That takes its number of local infections to more than 1,100 since the flare-up began on Dec. 9 and compelled authorities to put the city of 13mn under lockdown.Despite the low case count compared with clusters in many cities around the world, Xian officials have imposed tough curbs on travel within and out of the city since Dec 23, as Beijing demands each outbreak be contained quickly. “Xian has reached a live-or-die stage in its fight against the virus,” Zhang Fenghu, a city government official, told a news conference on Wednesday.Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology , two of the world’s largest memory-chip makers, have warned that the lockdown could affect their chip manufacturing bases in the area. Xian is also a major tourism destination, drawing visitors to its collection of terracotta warriors buried with China’s first emperor more than 2,000 years ago. Authorities have embarked on multiple rounds of citywide testing to trace transmissions. A sixth round began on Thursday, a day after a fifth round.Many residents have been barred from leaving their housing compounds unless going out to take Covid-19 tests or attend to essential matters approved by authorities. The Xian police have dispatched personnel to each residential compound to make sure Covid curbs are properly implemented, a police official told a news briefing on Thursday. The restrictions have curtailed access to daily necessities, with many people unable to go out to shop, leaving them dependent on deliveries. But the curbs have caused a staffing crunch at companies involved in ensuring the delivery of supplies and the government was working on resolving the issue, a Xian government official said on Wednesday.A Xian resident surnamed He told Reuters she tried to order groceries on the online app of Alibaba-backed supermarket chain Freshippo but could not secure many items including potatoes and cucumber. The app posted a message under many items saying: “Delivery staffers are not available”, according to a screenshot He provided.Several city districts have arranged for the delivery of free groceries to some residential compounds, state media said. The total supply of necessities in Xian was sufficient, a spokesperson at the commerce ministry told reporters.The Xian lockdown, now in its eighth day, coincides with the second anniversary of early signs of the coronavirus outbreak in the central city of Wuhan.