Today, Nov. 3, 2021

Chinese authorities have started promoting a narrative that threatens the use of the “death penalty” on those who resist cooperating with the country’s harsh zero-COVID-19 policies.

On Oct. 24, the State Council of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reported that since Oct. 17, Delta variant outbreaks have been detected in multiple locations and have rapidly expanded across the country. This was happening because numerous infected people had traveled across regions, increasing the spread of the virus. The actual source of the spread is still under investigation.

Just four days later, the CCP Health Committee announced that the Delta variant had been found in more than a dozen provinces besides Beijing, including Zhejiang, Henan, Fujian, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Sichuan, and others. In total, there were 701 active cases confirmed nationwide that day.

The reportedly aggressive return of the virus into Beijing has caused concern among local authorities, prompting them to deliver statements on how they will rectify the situation, which sometimes included threatening measures. City authorities are doubling down on their COVID-zero policy ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

On Oct. 28, the CCP’s official media CCTV, referenced an article in which an attorney was quoted as saying, “violating the epidemic prevention regulations constitutes a punishable crime that could warrant the death penalty.”

The quoted attorney, Zhao Zong, works for Beijing’s Zhongwen Law Firm. He said that any person who knows or suspects they are contagious or has been in close contact with an infected person must lawfully comply with quarantine guidelines. If they do not, the act of endangering public safety constitutes a punishable crime that could potentially warrant the death penalty.

Here are some of the measures already enacted by Beijing authorities: no unnecessary travel outside the capital; travel between provinces is suspended; all activity centers are closed, including chess and poker rooms; and mandatory vaccinations, including for children as young as 3-years-old. The authorities have also launched a third dose of vaccination for key staff, who must take the boosters to keep their jobs.=

On Oct. 28, two high-speed trains en-route to Beijing were suddenly stopped because each had a crew member that allegedly came into close contact with a contagious person. One train was the G14 carrying 212 people from Shanghai. Halfway through its journey, the Beijing Railway Bureau ordered the train to stop at Jinan West Station in Shandong Province. Everyone on board was removed immediately and transferred to an isolation site for centralized quarantine and medical observation.

Later that afternoon, the G108 train carrying 134 people from Jiaxing to Beijing South Station was also stopped by the Beijing Railway Bureau. Everyone on board was also quarantined. Initial COVID-19 testing of all 346 passengers and crew from both trains were all negative for COVID-19.

The swift and aggressive response in these two incidents reveal just how nervous the authorities are in wanting to eradicate COVID-19 from Beijing.

One video blogger who produces the program “Cold Eyes on Finance” commented that the CCP’s COVID-19 elimination model has more shockingly become a “concentration camps everywhere” model, and that the authorities have become “increasingly evil,” stripping away the human rights of the Chinese people. If you dare not to cooperate, you may be jailed immediately, he said.

The number of virus cases confirmed by the CCP may appear small, but “they are not transparent, so the reports are not credible,” he added. “Although there are only a few dozen cases a day, they [the authorities] are turning the lives of 1.4 billion Chinese people upside down.”

A judge on Monday paused a vaccination mandate for the Chicago Police Department (CPD) pending the settlement of a lawsuit between the department and the Chicago police officers union.

Cook County Judge Raymond Mitchell granted a partial temporary restraining order, requiring that the city cannot enforce the Dec. 31 deadline for CPD officers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but said that “the reporting and testing obligations”—or testing twice a week under city policy—still remain in effect

Disputes over vaccinations should be handled as a labor grievance with an arbitrator, Mitchell said.

“The reporting obligation itself is a minimal intrusion, particularly considering that police officers already are obligated to provide medical information to their employer,” Mitchell wrote.

“The effect of this order is to send these parties back to the bargaining table and to promote labor peace by allowing them to pursue” remedies under Illinois law, the judge added.

Mitchell’s decision centers on a lawsuit filed by the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) against the city last month in response to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate, under which all city employees had to report their vaccination status through an online portal by Oct. 15, and get fully vaccinated by Dec. 31, barring those who obtained exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

City workers who fail to meet the deadlines will be put on a no-pay status, Lightfoot’s administration said in announcing the mandate weeks ago.

“The principal risk to those who are unvaccinated is to themselves and to others who choose to be unvaccinated,” the judge said.

Police have lagged behind other city departments in meeting the vaccine requirements, but the numbers have been slowly increasing. City data released Monday showed about 73 percent of CPD employees had reported their COVID-19 vaccination status, and about 80 percent of those employees reported being fully vaccinated.

The judge noted that COVID-19, the disease caused by the [Covid] virus has killed many officers nationwide.

“In light of that terrible sacrifice, the police union’s request just to have their grievances heard seems a pretty modest task,” Mitchell said.

CPD Superintendent David Brown said that before the judge’s ruling, 35 officers had been placed on unpaid leave, CNN reported.

“We continue to encourage our department members to get the COVID-19 vaccine. This is about officer safety, as we’ve said repeatedly, and it’s about protecting our families and the people we serve,” Brown said.

According to the news outlet, a status hearing in the case has been set for Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. local time.

The Epoch Times has contacted FOP President John Catanzara and Lightfoot’s office for comment.

Cataranza in a video published on Oct. 12 called on union members to refuse to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, instructing members to file for exemptions to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine but to not enter that information into the city’s vaccine portal.

“I’ve made my status very clear as far as the vaccine, but I do not believe the city has the authority to mandate that to anybody—let alone that information about your medical history,” he said at the time.

President Joe Biden meanwhile suggested during a CNN presidential town hall on Oct. 21, that police officers who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 should be fired.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.