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There is a growing global consensus that COVID-19 will remain with us for the foreseeable future, and we will need to deal with outbreaks and adapt. An exception to this consensus is China, where the official position is that a single case of the virus is too many. Other countries, like Singapore and New Zealand, pursued similar eradication strategies. Those countries have modified their approaches following the emergence of the Delta variant, which has a shorter incubation period, making contact tracing more difficult.
Many Chinese citizens have supported the zero-tolerance policy on grounds of national pride and embrace of a siege mentality. The approach distinguishes the country from Western states, which are often portrayed in official media as unfairly critical of China’s handling of COVID from its origins. Chinese people have rallied to the cause, with older individuals recalling the collective effort required to fight SARS.
China remains resolute in its zero-tolerance stance, but has hit an inflection point. Its Herculean efforts to eliminate every infection appear to be hurting the country and the rest of the world. China’s retail spending is weak, the state apparatus to check and control for COVID is taking enormous resources and making travel and work challenging, and cargo handling at ports has slowed…
