Rare plea for help as China's zero tolerance for Covid hits border town

Beijing: A former vice mayor of a Chinese town on the border with Myanmar lamented local lockdowns and disruptions caused by repeated Covid-19 outbreaks and wrote a rare plea for a "strong" helping hand from Beijing.

Ruili, in the province of Yunnan, has faced some of the toughest curbs in the country under Beijing's zero-tolerance policy, as a key international transit point for southwest China, following multiple outbreaks since last year.

China's border towns, faced with a higher risk of infection from overseas and many equipped with relatively few resources, have tended to suffer more severe disruptions than richer cities.