Is China now ending the zero-Covid strategy?

Tanya von Arxforeign editor

The anger has to go. In China, many people are still taking to the streets. The reason: the country’s zero-Covid strategy. Led by Xi Jinping, 69, China is the last major economy to enforce ultra-strict corona restrictions — and has been for nearly three years. Even small outbreaks can cause entire cities to shut down. According to estimates, hundreds of millions of people and about a fifth of the economy are currently affected by lockdowns.

Despite all the uprisings and unrest since the weekend, the government initially remained firm. Police presence was stepped up and protests crushed. A news blackout was also imposed in connection with the demos.

But now there seems to be a turnaround. As the “Economist” reports, two of China’s largest cities, Chongqinq and Guangzhou, want to relax corona measures. According to the state news agency Xinhua, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, 72, said the pandemic was in a “new phase”.

The vaccination campaign needs to be strengthened

Sun went on to explain what exactly that means. “Now that the omicron variant has become less pathogenic, more people are being vaccinated and we have gained more experience in the prevention of Covid, our fight against the pandemic has entered a new phase and brings new tasks.” Sun also announced a “human approach” to combat the pandemic, according to Reuters news agency. However, she made no direct reference to Head of State Xi’s zero-Covid policy.

The cabinet had previously announced that it would intensify the vaccination campaign, particularly among the elderly. The elderly in the 1.4 billion country were vaccinated less for fear of side effects.

Rapid opening is “counterproductive and dangerous”

However, Deputy Prime Minister Sun’s announcement comes at a precarious time: the capital Beijing has registered around 5,000 new corona cases at the same time – a record.

A rapid opening is “counterproductive and dangerous,” Timo Ulrichs, a global health expert at Berlin’s Akkon University of Human Sciences, told the German news agency on Monday. The Chinese have almost no adequate immune protection. China has a low vaccination rate and an additional problem: no mRNA vaccines have been approved in the country. The government relies on specially developed vaccines that are not particularly good and do not work for a long time.

With the tough measures, the government has temporarily been able to get the virus under control. But in the meantime, the country should have been vaccinated to build up sufficient immune protection. This could have gradually relaxed the hard Corona policy.