Thousands of tourists were stranded as Communist leaders placed a Chinese holiday island under a brutal Covid-19 lockdown.

Footage shows confused tourists confronting state enforcers at train stations in Sanya city's Hainan Island on August 6.

The travellers were stuck on the island after a new Covid-19 variant reportedly prompted authorities to restrict movements in the city.

Around 80,000 tourists were affected by the announcement as trips going out of China's smallest and southernmost province were cancelled.

A tourist said: ‘My ticket was cancelled. Some of us don't have a hotel booked or a place to go. They could only stay here at the station and wait.'

To help the tourists, the local government reportedly handed out food and water at the station while ordering hotels to give a mandatory 50 per cent discount.

The island in the South China Sea only had two local Covid-19 cases last year which rose to 1,400 infections this month.

China's authoritarian cabal of unelected bureaucrats are continuing to follow a flawed zero-infections policy by enforcing masks, social distancing and lockdowns.

American broadcaster CNN estimated that in Beijing alone, the state's testing system is costing the state at least 10 million dollars a day. That doesn't include other Covid features such as its 'opaque' track and tracing apps as well as the overall cost to the economy.