Chinese City Turns COVID-19 App Into Digital Handcuffs For Bank Protestors
The Chinese regime is using COVID-19 control measures to stop depositors whose savings were frozen by rural banks from protesting.
Several depositors told The Epoch Times on June 14 that the health code on their COVID-19 app turned red as soon as they scanned venue barcodes at Zhengzhou, the provincial capital city of central China’s Henan Province. A red health code—indicating a potential COVID-19 patient—means that the carrier is barred access to all public places from public toilets to shops to train stations and faces mandatory quarantine in centralized isolation centers. They’re among tens of thousands of bank depositors who have fought to recover their savings for more than two months.
Aggrieved depositors across the country planned another protest in Zhengzhou on June 13 to demand an answer, although previous gatherings were met with silence from local authorities and violence from plainclothes police officers. However, their plan was thwarted again as their health codes turned red at the city’s train stations or highway entrances. A red code indicates the highest level of risk, meaning the person tests positive, has been close to a COVID-19 patient, or has visited high-COVID-risk areas in the past 14 days. Residents with a red code face two weeks of centralized isolation.