Health tests organized in Beijing on October 27. TINGSHU WANG / Portal
Three years after the first cases of Covid-19 were discovered in central China’s Wuhan, the country is still mired in the health crisis. Beijing reported its highest number of new cases in six months on Monday, November 7, despite multiple lockdowns disrupting the economy and daily life. The Ministry of Health announced nearly 5,500 new contaminations, including a large part in the coastal province of Guangdong (south), a key manufacturing hub.
This recovery of the epidemic is certainly much smaller than in many countries. This weekend, however, health officials showered hopes of an easing of the “zero Covid” policy, stressing that it will continue despite residents’ fatigue. This strategy consists of locking down neighborhoods or entire cities as soon as cases arise, conducting massive screenings or quarantining people who test positive. These restrictions are sometimes accompanied by poor access to food or medical care and difficulties in getting around, eroding Chinese people’s patience.
Confinement-related dramas occur regularly. The suicide of a 55-year-old woman by falling from a window in the cordoned-off city of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia (north) this weekend sparked an outcry because authorities say sanitation rules have hampered rescue efforts. The access doors to the apartment building were sealed to prevent entry and exit. However, the two daughters of the unfortunate had warned the authorities that their mother was suffering from anxiety and had suicidal thoughts.
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A few days ago, a 3-year-old child died from carbon monoxide asphyxiation in Lanzhou, the limited capital of Gansu Province (northwest). In a message published on the internet but since deleted, his father accused the agents in charge of applying the containment of obstructing his access to the hospital. The district administration then apologized.
First export decline since 2020
The radical strategy against the epidemic is also a brake on activity and consumption, which has harmful effects on the economy. In Zhengzhou (middle), the world’s largest iPhone factory is still under lock and key. The site “is currently working at a significantly reduced capacity” and this disruption will lead to delays in delivery, the American company Apple admitted on Sunday.
The country’s exports in October suffered their first drop since May 2020 due to health restrictions and a looming global recession that also hurt imports, officials said. China’s exports fell 0.3% year-on-year last month, according to customs data released Monday. In September, exports rose again by 5.7% over the course of a year. The looming recession in the United States and Europe, combined with rising energy prices, is weakening demand for Chinese products.
Logically, imports from China also collapsed in October (-0.7% yoy), after a modest 0.3% gain the month before. The last drop in imports was in March, just before the lockdown in Shanghai. China’s trade surplus stood at $85.15 billion in October, but that level is well below July’s record high (€101.2 billion).
Despite the impact on activities, Chinese President Xi Jinping last month reiterated the validity of his “zero Covid” public health policy. China will “steadfastly” stick to this strategy, health authorities said again on Saturday after several days of speculation about its easing.
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