There was a variation in the way China’s provinces and major cities implemented Covid-19 pandemic policies. The variation seemed to be determined by the socioeconomic development levels of localities, according to US-based The Diplomat Magazine.
According to The Diplomat, all provincial capitals declared a Stage 1 emergency before the provincial governments did, in order to accelerate emergency governance measures. However, the length and form of these lockdowns varied greatly. Each province in China developed its own digital COVID-tracking app in order to prevent data sharing with other provinces to avoid being stigmatized for their numbers.
Lockdowns were cut short in cities that have high investment rates, such as those located on China’s well-off east coast. There, cities resumed production and channelled the government’s pandemic subsidies to firms to prevent bankruptcies.
Cities with large working-class populations, such as those in central and western China, limited mobility with extended lockdowns in 2020, and funnelled subsidies into poverty and unemployment funds, according to The Diplomat report.
The Diplomat report said that all policies in the database show signs of prioritizing local governments’ own needs, known as local protectionism. Local protectionism shapes China’s other national policies as well.
GeoPolitica.info recently reported that China is facing a significant challenge in the form of COVID-19, due to the Chinese
Communist Party’s (CCP) “flawed and regressive containment policies and ineffective domestically produced vaccines”.
Many reports from China have suggested that hospitals in highly-populated cities, including Shanghai and Beijing are overflowing with patients despite officials claiming that the outbreak had peaked last month, as per the news report.
Without any plan, the Chinese government ended its “zero-COVID policy” which in its initial phases imposed stringent measures, according to GeoPolitica.info report. In order to contain the spread of the virus, China imposed “draconian lockdowns, stringent contact tracing as well as inhumane behaviour by party officials.”
Although China’s economy witnessed a significant downfall, caused by the restrictions imposed by the CCP. The measures announced by the Chinese government might have prevented deaths. However, they also left a huge percentage of its population without natural immunity from COVID-19, more so, as China’s home-grown vaccines were ineffective as a deterrent against the virus and they even failed to protect the people, according to GeoPolitica.info report.
China’s COVID-19 containment strategy has affected Chinese people and has caused major discontent among people in the country, as per the GeoPolitica.info report. (ANI)
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