Category: zero-COVID

Four Megacities Start Regular, Mandatory Testing, Zero-COVID Policy May Come to an End: Analysis

News analysis Four cities in China have reportedly proposed to regularly conduct compulsory massive nucleic acid testing after Shanghai announced that it achieved “basic zero-clearance at the social level.” The move is regarded by some analysts as a way of  “coexisting with the virus,” and indicates that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might be ending its…


China’s Extreme COVID-19 Lockdown Policy Was a ‘Catastrophic Error’: Think Tank President

The Chinese Communist Party’s continued insistence on its “zero-COVID” strategy to tackle local outbreaks is not so much about science, but rather the choice of its top leader Xi Jinping, who ties the success of the strategy to his own greatness, according to Jeffrey A. Tucker, president of Texas-based think tank the Brownstone Institute. “Xi…


Beijing Steps Up COVID-19 Curbs With Shanghai Still Under Lockdown

BEIJING/SHANGHAI—The Chinese capital Beijing shut dozens of metro stations and bus routes on Wednesday in its campaign to stop the spread of COVID-19. The Chinese regime’s uncompromising battle against the coronavirus, which is believed to have emerged in Wuhan city in late 2019, is undermining its growth and hurting the international companies invested there, according…


COVID Testing and Isolation: No Let up for Residents Caught up in Shanghai Lockdown

Despite weeks of lockdown, Shanghai authorities have enhanced anti-COVID measures in a bid to achieve zero cases in all 16 districts, with some residential compounds being fenced off and daily mass testing for thousands of residents. On May 1, Gu Honghui, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government and director of the city’s anti-pandemic office, said…


UK Demands Return to In-Person Teaching as Complaints Against Universities Soar to Record High

The British government has demanded that all universities return to pre-pandemic levels of face-to-face teaching, as it emerged that complaints about university courses soared to the highest level on record last year. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) said it received 2,763 complaints from students in 2021, an increase of 6…


Setback for Shanghai’s COVID-19 Battle; Beijing Focus on Mass Testing

SHANGHAI/BEIJING—China’s commercial capital of Shanghai was dealt a blow on Monday as authorities reported new COVID-19 cases outside quarantine areas while Beijing pressed on with testing millions of its people. Tough coronavirus measures in Shanghai have stirred rare public anger, with millions of the city’s 25 million people confined indoors for more than a month,…


Beijing’s ‘Zero-COVID’ Threatens China’s Economy

News Analysis  As the Omicron variant is causing a surge in COVID-19 infections across 30 provinces and municipalities in China, Beijing’s “zero-COVID” restrictions appear to be causing more harm than good. The strict measures are sapping the productivity of businesses, weakening the stock market’s performance, forcing about 400 million people to remain in lockdown, and…


China’s Xi Echoes Putin in Proposal for New ‘Global Security Initiative’ Amid Mounting International Criticism

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on April 21 took several veiled swipes at Washington and allies’ sanctions on Russia, while proposing what he called a new China-led “global security initiative.” Xi said the new initiative takes “legitimate security concerns of all” and upholds “the principle of indivisibility of security,” key concepts that Russia has used to…


Shanghai Quarantine: 24-hour Lights, No Hot Showers

BEIJING—Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition center. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower. Beibei and her husband were ordered into the massive National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai last Tuesday after spending 10…


China’s Economy in March Shows Weakness as ‘Zero-COVID’ Bites, Suggesting Hard Grind Ahead

China’s economy slowed in March, seeing a contraction in both domestic consumption and factories activities as Beijing’s sweeping COVID-19 lockdowns takes their toll across the country, official data shows. The figures came after financial hub Shanghai has for weeks been gripped by an unprecedented city-wide lockdown, and hundreds of millions subject to stay-at-home orders around…