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China president Xi Jinping told visiting European Council president Charles Michel that recent protests against Covid-19 controls in cities in the mainland were by students “frustrated” after three years of the pandemic.

What Xi said in private during the conversation were made known to the media via senior EU officials familiar with the situation, South China Morning Post and Wall Street Journal reported.

Xi held a three-hour meeting in Beijing on Dec. 1, where he supposedly spoke about the situation in China.

Xi also had reportedly suggested the pandemic has entered a less deadly stage, as he supposedly said the Omicron strain appears less deadly than earlier iterations, such as Delta.

First-known responses by Xi

These are the first known responses by China’s leader to the recent demonstrations on college campuses and cities around the country, WSJ reported.

SCMP added that the Chinse government has not publicly acknowledged the protests, rendering Xi's responses, albeit private ones with officials, relatively significant.

The official Chinese and European statements about the meeting did not mention Xi’s comments about Covid-19 and the protests.

But Michel, in remarks to reporters post-meeting, said he told Xi: “The right of peaceful assembly is a fundamental right enshrined both in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in national constitutions.”

Caveat

However, WSJ reported a caveat that it could not be determined if Xi expounded on the viewpoints, as what was made known was via those who reiterated the talking points during the meeting.

How Xi's responses came about

Xi was said to have made his views on the protests known after he was asked by Michel about the mass testing, quarantines, and lockdowns over vaccination drives in China.

Michel also reportedly “pleaded for use of vaccines" before raising his question, an official privy to the conversation said.

Xi apparently responded by saying why there were protests.

China could up vaccination rates

The protests, which were rare public displays of dissatisfaction, called for Xi's resignation, and for the Chinese Communist Party to step down.

Such direct challenges to the state are unthinkable in modern-day China.

But what the people were doing might have worked.

Beijing appears to be softening its stance on anti-virus restrictions by allowing more freedom of movement and the reopening of businesses in the wake of protests.

There also appears to be an official softening in tone about the pandemic.

The central government has announced a new vaccination drive to get the elderly to get shots.

Only 40 per cent of those over 80 years old in China have had the full three-jab course of its locally-made vaccine.

Beijing has declined the use of foreign-made vaccines, preferring locally-manufactured ones.

Top photo via www.news.cn