From a Global Leader to Isolation — China’s Post-COVID Border Policies
After COVID was introduced to our world and became a norm, we learned to live with it. Countries such as the U.S. have fully opened up to tourism, with everything seemingly to go back to normal. However, China has stuck with the “zero tolerance” strategy since day 1 — anyone visiting the country has to quarantine for 14–28 days, not to mention that it’s almost impossible for foreigners to obtain a visa to visit. All citizens are equipped with a QR code that’s connected with their cell service, and the code turns yellow or red if the individual has had a possible exposure. With a yellow or red code, the individual is obligated to stay home with strict enforcement such as a motion detector installed on the door. Personally, I understand the government’s precautions. When COVID first happened, I stood alongside the government’s perspective. With an 80-year-old grandmother and an 86-year-old grandfather, I feared every day that their lives would be endangered by the virus. As someone in their twenties, I, along with many who yearned for the opening of the country, had been holding a biased point of view, which sometimes can seem rather selfish because elderly people with underlying illnesses can develop symptoms that are much more severe. However, the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. With the development of vaccines, huge segments of the world’s population have built immunity to the virus. Even if the numbers are going up, most people only have mild symptoms. As the virus continues to mutate with emerging variants, the effect would only become less severe, as most vaccinated patients with the Omicron variant only have mild symptoms such as a sore throat. Yet most importantly, the “no tolerance” policy infringes human rights and limits economic growth, thus requiring a new solution for China to open its borders.
Most of the population in China initially understood the strict measures taken by the government, especially after seeing how the U.S. suffered 851,000 deaths up until now, and the public has set their eyes on the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the upcoming election for Xi’s third term, putting a lot of pressure on Xi’s handling of the pandemic. However, the way that the Chinese media portrays the virus exaggerates the fatality of the disease and employs it as a political weapon towards western countries. Moreover, the inflexibility of the rules have raised doubts — is COVID more important than basic humanity? In Xi’an where there is a COVID outbreak right now, many who are in medical needs are getting ignored because the government fears a new wave of COVID: a pregnant woman about to give birth had to wait almost a day until she could see a doctor, and eventually she had a miscarriage; a grandpa who had a heart attack was rejected by multiple hospitals, including agents of the 911 line, and later died. Xie Yang, a human rights lawyer, was warned multiple times by the authorities to not visit the mother of a dissident, but he chose to go anyway. (The Associated Press) The day before he left, his QR code was green, meaning that he was not exposed to COVID and was free to travel. However, the second day, just as he got to the airport to board his flight, his code turned red and was sent home by the authorities. (Buckley) QR codes, which were meant to help stop the spread of the virus, became a tool for the government to track its citizens and keep them in control.
During recent months in an outbreak in Shanghai, the government put all its resources into relocating positive COVID patients (20000+ daily) to quarantine hubs while disallowing citizens from going out of their homes for essential needs. Nobody in Shanghai is allowed to go out. Many who have illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, liver failure, etc. are left to die because they don’t have a negative test result within 48 hours and aren’t allowed in hospitals. Shanghainese people are known for their pride for their city, but after what had happened, people have lost hope. A spreadsheet was posted online recording deaths caused by COVID policies, not the disease itself: relatives and friends of those who passed away added in each row the name and the cause of death. Reading through the spreadsheet brings pain to my heart, seeing the city I grew up in go into the ground. Not surprisingly, the article was soon taken down. If anything, COVID only gave the government a justification for limiting citizens’ freedom. The fault is not within the people; it’s within the rules. I strongly believe that the majority of the population are against the abuse of humanity, but the political environment in China does not allow them to speak up. Normally, whenever a natural disaster or any sort of force majeure happens, the local political leader takes full responsibility. In 2020 when a major flood took away more than 10 lives in the city of Zhenzhou, Henan, the mayor was dismissed from his position immediately, even though he had no direct involvement in the situation; when COVID was spread to multiple provinces last year, many province heads were forced to resign or were directly discharged. The severe consequences suffered by political leaders from events they had no control over taught them a lesson, therefore a tradition was formed that officials would simply enforce the strictest rules to prevent any accidents. The same situation occurred in Xi’an and Shanghai: to the government officials, the life of a single grandfather or a single baby weighed nothing compared to their career; if the virus was spread by the grandfather or the baby, their career would be over. In Shanghai recently, local leaders hired actors to present a scene of livelihood in compounds during the lockdown so that they can save their career instead of helping those who are actually in need. The virus is not the deadliest cause, but the strip of humanity is. Many experts have predicted COVID to be an everlasting disease, therefore by not opening up, the government indirectly undermines the importance of civilians’ lives. Under such a political atmosphere, a “no tolerance” policy would only continue to further compromise human rights and destroy hundreds of families.
The “zero tolerance” policy also signals negative economic implications. With the economy booming after recovering from COVID’s effects in 2020, many countries have seen higher growth in 2021 and predict even stronger growth for 2022. However, China’s recent policies have worsened the economic outlook for the country. Goldman Sachs’ prediction for China’s economic growth in 2022 shrank from 4.8% to 4.3%, along with Morgan Stanley’s prediction on China’s economy that dropped from 4.9 to 4.2 for the first quarter growth of 2022 (He). Moreover, the economic effect continues outside of the country. China has strengthened its leading role in manufacturing in recent years, with a trade surplus of 676 billion for the 2021 fiscal year. (Bloomberg) In recent months, however, manufacturers fear one of the worst lockdowns since the beginning of the pandemic at ports such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Dalian, and Shenzhen, which imposed lockdown policies in order to control the spread of the virus (Swanson). Combined with increasing inflation and supply chain shortages around the globe, China’s new lock downs may even further increase inflation around the world. Interest rates have been flat globally; governments initiated intense bond buyback programs; and many have received government issued stimulus money — the buying power has been higher than ever, but with the limited supply and labor shortage, goods’ prices are slowly increasing. China’s lockdown as one of the world’s largest suppliers will exacerbate the supply chain shortage, leading to high inflation, which can cause a recession. Besides global recession, China is suffering what it fears most, the indefinite departure of foreign investments. With the lock down in Shanghai, many U.S. companies and diplomats are pulling out of the country because of the instability and uncertainty of Chinese policies. In order to prevent further consequences, the government needs to act right now.
Currently, opening up the country all at once is impossible. Even though the majority of the population is vaccinated, the Chinese vaccine’s efficacy remains in doubt. Moreover, with the aging population in China, the virus could be more deadly than it was in the western countries. With that being said, how to safely open the country has been debated. One commonly held argument from Chinese citizens is for the country to remain closed. They think that after being isolated from the rest of the world for so long, opening up now symbolizes the government giving up on the citizens. Points have been made on the benefits of the country being closed: tourism flourished within the nation; people transitioned from buying luxurious western brands to local alternatives; and most importantly, COVID cases have remained low. The opposite side argues for the country to open as soon as possible because besides the human rights and inflation concerns, China can face a loss of foreign investment. The pandemic has taught companies the importance of having suppliers that can assure stable and steady supplies, therefore corporations have since moved factories from China to countries with less strict COVID policies such as Vietnam.
I believe that the best way to open up the country is to do so slowly. First, the government needs to allow foreigners to come in in order for businesses, schools, and other institutions that involve foreigners to continue functioning.. A possible solution would be to create “safety bridges” with countries that have relatively well enforced COVID precautions, such as Singapore, Korea, and Japan. The “safety bridges” would allow residents from participating countries to be able to travel between each other. Currently, foreigners, including business partners, investors, or even English teachers have to undergo countless procedures in order to travel to China, thus “safety bridges” between countries allow for easier procedures. Another approach that should be implemented is a shorter period of quarantine. In China, foreigners who are lucky enough to obtain a visa have to be quarantined for more than 14 days, up to 28 in certain cities, even though most of them are healthy and test negative every day. According to CDC guidelines, the new variant’s incubation period and spreading period are way shorter, and people who have been exposed to the virus only have to quarantine for five days without symptoms, not to say those who haven’t been exposed. Quarantining for 28 days would be a complete waste, not only time but also money since travelers have to pay for hotels themselves. Doing so would also discourage foreign talents from entering the country. A quarantine period of 7 days with daily testing would be sufficient. With the current measures, even if there were to be any COVID cases, the strict enforcements of masks and personal QR codes can deter it from spreading rapidly.
COVID has changed all of our lives, and like any other inescapable adversity, we have to learn to live with it together as a society. A single death is a tragedy, so is a million; it’s not only a number. Opening the country doesn’t mean negligence on lives, but doing so correctly with strict measures would only benefit China, improve human rights problems, and alleviate inflation pressures. COVID is a scary disease that has taken away the lives of many, which is exactly why we should not impose policies that will add on to that pain, the pain of watching your loved ones die in front of your eyes, the helplessness of being separated from one’s loved ones, and the desperation seeing one’s city’s demise.
