Sébastien Le Belzic (in Beijing), edited by Juliette Moreau Alvarez
modified to
08:02, September 06, 2022
In China, the government continues with its zero-Covid strategy and massively confines its population. Nearly 21 million people are confined to the country, a policy that is costly for the Chinese economy, already on the verge of recession. Xi Jinping nevertheless wishes to continue on this path.
The fight against Covid-19 seems endless in China. Almost every day, we learn of the confinement of a new city. Since this weekend, tens of millions of people have again been confined to the country. In Chengdu, only 150 patients and 21 million inhabitants who find themselves confined. China has found a nice euphemism to name this strategy: it calls it the static management of Covid.
Nearly 100 million people confined
Jin Yuming from the National Health Supervision Bureau explains China’s strategy: “After the resurgence of Covid-19, we quickly implemented static management to prevent the spread of the epidemic. We launched PCR tests of mass to gradually achieve the goal of having no new patients.” This static management is repeated almost everywhere in the country. In Shenzhen, the heart of new technologies very close to Hong Kong, a large part of the city is closed. Same thing in Dalian, Jilin or Changchun and as far as Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. In total, nearly 100 million people are currently confined in China.
However, this policy is very expensive for the Chinese economy, already on the verge of recession. It is defended tooth and nail by President Xi Jinping who is preparing to win a third term at the twentieth congress of the Communist Party to be held on October 16th.