China’s Covid response well planned, ‘open and transparent’, senior US-based diplomat says

No delays over foreign vaccine imports other than for commercial reasons and country’s zero-Covid policy reversal well planned, adds Qian Jin
Beijing seeks to counter foreign countries’ scepticism as US and Japan urge ‘adequate’ data regarding spread of coronavirus

Coronavirus China

Mark Magnierin New York

Published: 7:30am, 14 Jan 2023

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China has not delayed foreign vaccine imports other than for commercial reasons, its zero-Covid policy reversal was well planned and its mortality statistics are accurate and not meant to hide the extent of the problem, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Friday.

After China’s unexpected policy turnaround last month, large numbers of Chinese have fallen sick, straining hospitals and raising concern in foreign countries and at the UN that new coronavirus variants could spread from the country.

“The peak is already possible in Beijing,” said Qian Jin, China’s deputy consul general in New York. “We see the lives coming back to normal, people coming out to the street and the economy is booming.”

Chinese deputy consul general Qian Jin in New York on Friday speaking about his country’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Mark Magnier

Qian added that the rest of China would soon follow and that no new variants were emerging.

“There are some accusations on China’s not being transparent,” he said. “But as a matter of fact, we’ve always been dealing with this question in an open and transparent manner. We shared the genome sequence of the virus at the earliest opportunity.”

Qian, a native of Nanjing, said too often there was a knee-jerk distrust of China’s system, fuelled by a foreign media misinformed about the country’s strong track record of keeping its citizens safe and protected over the past three years.

Beijing has faced criticism globally over a perceived lack of timely and complete reporting on pandemic-related deaths and illness.

A joint statement on Friday by President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida after their Washington summit called on China to “report adequate transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data regarding the spread of Covid-19, to enable public health officials around the world to be prepared to reduce the spread and identify any potential new variants”.

It followed comments last week by Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergencies director, asserting that current figures released from China under-represented numbers of hospital admissions, ICU admissions and “particularly in terms of death”.

Qian on Friday countered that different systems relied on different statistical methods. Beijing enlists a mortality “due to Covid” standard, rather than the more expansive mortality “with Covid” standard used by other countries, which includes deaths over a 28-day period, he said.

02:17

WHO says China under-representing real impact of its latest Covid-19 surge

Beijing has accused foreign capitals of politicising the science after several imposed testing requirements on incoming travellers from China – including the US, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Spain, France, Germany and Canada – and implemented tighter visa restrictions on inbound Japanese and South Koreans.

China has launched a campaign to tell its side of the story. Friday’s extended briefing for reporters in New York came days after a similar briefing in Washington that echoed arguments from Beijing.

“China’s Covid-response policies are science-based, effective, and consistent with China’s national realities,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin in Beijing this week. “They can stand the test of history.”

Qian said governments worldwide adopted different policy approaches to the pandemic and that no system was perfect.

But 1 million Americans have died, far more than in China, he said, and China’s age expectancy recently lengthened to 78.2 years from 77.3 years, even as the US has seen levels decline.

While experts acknowledge that the US death rate from the pandemic has been tragic, they contend the reduced life expectancy is partly linked to the opioid crisis and import of fentanyl, a portion of which comes from China.

The two governments are discussing ways to stem the flow of illegal drugs, which Beijing blames on American demand.

02:06

Medics work while hooked up to IV drips during Covid-19 surge in China

Qian said China had started importing Western medicine from Pfizer and other makers, including Paxlovid, but the drugs are expensive.

He said foreign pharmaceuticals must align with Chinese insurance requirements, and it has taken time to negotiate commercial arrangements.

“It’s not about whether they’re taking, for example, the American medicine,” he said. “It’s relevant that the rate of vaccination is low. It’s according to the market principle.”

Foreign analysts said Beijing has often touted the benefits of its authoritarian form of government and its superior ability to care for its people compared with Western democracies, which it views as disorganised.

But they question why China did not use the past three years more effectively to vaccinate its elderly and better marshal healthcare resources.

“This should have been planned, they knew that eventually zero-Covid [policy] would end,” said Zack Cooper of the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank. “It seems like they weren’t ready for the policy change that they made.”