Covid U-turn in China
I always follow the news from China very closely, and these past weeks I’ve been amazed by the speed at which changes are taking place there.
I’m sure you heard about the protests that took place in China at the end of November. Textile workers rioting in Guangdong, protests because of the building block fire in Urumqi, vigils in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities. The government must have finally realized that many people were at breaking point and that they were risking a big unrest, and they finally started lifting covid restrictions. Or maybe they thought it was the perfect excuse to get rid of the dynamic zero covid policy. But the speed at which they’re doing it…
As of last month, China was officially very committed to dynamic zero covid and condemned “the West” (i.e. the rest of the world, as no country still had any covid restrictions in place) for “lying flat” and letting people die. Long covid was going to be the ruin of all countries that did not fight against the virus:
Just a few weeks later, somehow China is already prepared to open up and now quarantine is voluntary. Although one of my colleagues in Shanghai is currently doing forced quarantine in a hotel because one of her flatmates was positive, so not sure how “voluntary” is defined or if it applies to retroactive cases.
I am obviously not against the opening up, but I have a lot of doubts regarding the official narrative. According to the Chinese government, China could not open up because many elderly people had not been vaccinated or boosted yet, and the country’s medical system would be overwhelmed if measures were relaxed and caused too many positive cases. So, have all elderly and at risk people get vaccinated and boosted yet? Have hospital capacity and UCI beds been reinforced and increased? If the answer was “no” last month, how can it be “yes” now? They had 3 years to work on that, and suddenly everything was done and finished in a couple of weeks?
So now people in China are divided into two groups, one who is so happy about restrictions being lifted that doesn’t even want to ask questions, and other in which people are scared of a virus which until two weeks ago was officially very dangerous, but now it’s nothing to worry about. Official media are now giving advice on what to do if you are infected. The problem is, in China people go to get an intravenous drip at the hospital for a common cold, so when they are covid positive, you can be sure they are going to flood hospitals, even if they barely have symptoms. But it’s something to be expected, no? They’ve been hearing for 3 years that covid kills.
Of one thing I’m sure: when hospitals start being overwhelmed and deaths start creeping up, for Chinese official media, it will be the West’s fault, because somehow the West forced China to open up and of course everybody behind the November protests was controlled by foreign agents. It was not that workers had been out of a job for too long, it was not that the urban youth was completely fed up with not being able to go anywhere, no, it was foreign spies who always wreak havoc in China. In fact, it’s the protestors’ fault for complaining about daily PCRs and quarantines!
Now Chinese people are very confused… They are used to things changing fast, but this surely broke all speed records.
There’s always more than meets the eye for uprisings! Just like if someone is angry at you, they’re not angry at you, it’s something else. Thank you for keeping it real!
“It’s not me! It must be you! But definitely not me!”
Yup!
It is fascinating to watch social media and protest bringing about change–Iran abolished their morality police and China backed down on its COVID policies.
But you are sure right about China really dropping the ball on vaccinations. Almost two years since vaccines were available in an authoritarian state–how is all of China not vaccinated and boosted?
Because vaccines were never compulsory. Most youngish people got their jabs, but old people can be very stubborn. They didn’t see the need to get vaccinated when there were almost no cases in the whole country, and also they may tend to distrust vaccines (unfortunately there have been several vaccine scandals in China, like when a company was selling expired and re-labelled rabies vaccines a couple of years ago). Local governments have tried to bribe them, offering gifts and even up to 1000 RMB to get jabbed, but still didn’t manage to convince everybody.
It sounds like they need to get their act together on the messaging. Historically, people and their governments haven’t acted well when hit with a pandemic. Why won’t everyone just go ahead and get vaccinated? China seems to be too proud to get the better vaccines from abroad.
Thanks for including the cartoons.
I think Chinese vaccines protect well enough against severe symptoms, but I’m a bit worried that most people got their jabs a long time ago, most of them over one year ago. Also, some people, especially old people, tend to distrust vaccines, and they were never forced to get the shot, just encouraged. Oh, and when the vaccination drive started at the beginning of 2021, the vaccine was only for people aged 18-59. Over 60s were not included until several months later.
Puzzled. Why do people go for IV fluids for a common cold? But interesting times ahead for sure
I have no idea why hahaha. Maybe they feel in danger if they don’t go?
Yes, I was shocked by the speed in which it seems Thailand has Chinese tourists again! I’m sure April’s upcoming election has nothing to do with it either. I wonder what will happen next!
April election? Where? In China?
I thought that’s what I heard. Outlets keep talking about how Xi is handling the pandemic will affect his re-election. (???)
Oh, that! That was in October, the “re-election” (hehe). In April it’s just the official start of the new term (I think).
Hi Marta, I’m in Shanghai now and it’s just funny how things change so much. That last picture says it all hahaha. On top of that, the gov’t is saying you don’t need a health code and then some places are still saying you need it. It’s a mess.
In China, things always change fast, but this has to be the fastest change of them all. I thought the health code was deactivated!
It really was a surprising turn of events from protests to the sudden lifting of Covid restrictions. The Covid surge was bad, but I think the outbreak is under control now and most places, like Beijing, are back to normal. Hopefully this continues and the coronavirus doesn’t make a nasty resurgence or anything.