When Beijing became a bubble within a bubble for the 20th National Congress of China’s Communist Party

If China remains, three years into the pandemic, a “zero-COVID” bubble isolated from the world, the Chinese capital, for a few weeks in October, became a bubble within a bubble.

As China’s leaders gathered for a once-in-five-years congress of the Communist Party, to mark the start of a third five-year term for Xi Jinping, the capital was the most secure place in China. Residents of any city that logged even a single COVID-19 case were essentially barred from travelling to Beijing, which was also, as is the case for most party congresses, covered in a blanket of security.

And even within the Beijing bubble, for the course of a week in mid-October, a few buildings became yet another bubble within a bubble — a sterile, high-security conclave for any congress attendee. Journalists covering the event had to live in what was a “closed loop” that extended to a few hotels and congress venues, and was cut off from the rest of the city, country and the world.

No hiding from the regime

I entered the closed loop on a cold and smoggy Wednesday morning, a good three days before the closing session that was open to the media. Entering the loop required a PCR test and presenting your seven-day travel history to prove you did not leave Beijing. In China, of course, this is all done through apps. There is a Beijing Health Kit that logs all your test results — every Beijing resident is required to take a test every three days, without which you cannot enter a shopping mall or hospital or even hail a cab — and a travel app that, based on your phone number, tracks where you have been.

There is no hiding from the ‘zero-COVID’ regime, under which neighbourhoods are locked down for just a single case and all close contacts are sent to quarantine facilities. The world may have moved on from lockdowns and mass testing, but China certainly hasn’t.

Authorities went all out to ensure that COVID-19 wouldn’t disrupt the congress — and Xi’s coronation. Reporters in the closed loop were tested not just daily but twice a day — once in the morning and once at night. No wonder that they managed to pull off the event without any cases being reported in the bubble.

The elaborate arrangements and suffocating security shed some light on Chinese Communist Party politics. The congresses are elaborately choreographed spectacles that drag on for a week with much pomp and circumstance, although all the outcomes — from the amended party Constitution, which further enshrined Xi’s unrivalled position as a “core” leader for years to come, to the unveiling of the next leadership of the Politburo, which was stacked fully with Xi’s men — were decided well in advance. Close to 2,300 delegates from all over China were flown in just to rubber-stamp the decisions.

COVID-19 tests done, on the day of the closing, journalists were boarded on to a convoy of buses, alighting on a deserted Tiananmen Square, which is usually milling with tourists but closed off during the congress. Even the winter smog miraculously disappeared just for the closing weekend, no doubt enforced by factory closures to ensure picture-perfect skies above Tiananmen.

Reporters arrived to the closing session at the Great Hall of the People, the massive parliament complex that abuts the square, only to find the frail former leader Hu Jintao being whisked off stage.

No second takes

Hu’s removal became the biggest talking point, although it remains a mystery whether it was because, as the Chinese government later claimed, he was unwell, or whether the leadership was concerned he might in some way deviate from the script. It did, however, only reinforce, much like the extraordinary COVID-19 regulations, how nothing is left to chance.

It also underlined how Chinese politics has once again, for better or worse, become a one-man show. Gone is the collective leadership model that served China well for three decades, conceived of as an antidote to personality cults after the horrors inflicted by Mao Zedong’s misconceived campaigns. In the closed loop, reminders were everywhere that the show had only one star on stage, from photographs of Xi to stacks of books of his writings, now available in every language from Russian and French to Arabic and Spanish.

Congress over, with Xi beginning his next term in full control, the closed loop came to a close too, and after five days within the bubble, the reporters were free to go home. “It’s like being let back out into the wild,” remarked one as he walked out, one last time, past the COVID-19 screening area.

Meanwhile outside the bubble, life in Beijing continued as normal, the events at the Great Hall of the People remote for most Beijingers.

“For ordinary people like us, it’s all the same,” shrugged one street vendor, as he momentarily shut shop, put on his face mask, and headed down the street to line up for a COVID-19 test.

ananth.krishnan@thehindu.co.in