Letters | Why it’s time China took its Covid-19 victory lap

Readers discuss China’s Covid-19 strategy, the Hong Kong chief executive candidate’s plan to alleviate the housing crisis, and how a career planning website can be improved

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A delivery worker passes groceries to a woman on the street, amid a Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai on May 2. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 2:30pm, 7 May 2022

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China’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been successful. Given what we know about the virus, it is not so much the number of infections that matters but the number of deaths. The Chinese government’s efforts went down well with the local population, as they were able to go about their lives in relative normalcy over the last two years when many parts of the world went through long periods of restrictions.

In recent months, however, significant restrictions have been put in place in major Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong, under the Chinese government’s “dynamic zero-Covid” policy. While such restrictions have also been imposed in other countries in the past, the difference is in the timing.

In the United States, Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the president, has to much fanfare declared that the country is out of the pandemic phase. In Europe, Covid-19 is not a topic of discussion any more and the last of the pandemic-related restrictions have been progressively lifted, including mask mandates in many countries.

China rightly maintains that human life is worth protecting and thus that allowing Covid-19 to spread in society can risk overwhelming the healthcare system, which struggled to cope in the early stages of the pandemic. Despite the videos circulating online of unfortunate examples of mishandling by those enforcing the Covid-19 policy, Chinese people are very resilient.

However, in cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong, which stand as the brightest examples of China’s might and progress and where local governments are renowned for their efficiency and pragmatism, some are questioning the necessity of the restrictions.