China has launched a new Covid-19 vaccination drive, but there’s no mandate
- Low uptake, particularly among the elderly, has been a major hurdle for reopening
- Previous attempts to introduce mandates have met with strong public opposition
Public health experts say while the plan does not go far enough, it would be difficult to introduce a vaccine mandate in China.
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Protesters around the world rally behind Covid demonstrators in China
“We’ve seen attempts by local governments to introduce a vaccine pass on public transport or to enter shopping malls, but they all backed down after strong resistance,” said Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong. “The central government seems to have neither the will nor the proper measures to introduce a vaccine pass.”
Although there have been administrative orders for government workers, calling on those in state-owned enterprises and areas like the service sector to get vaccinated against Covid-19, there has never been a broader vaccine mandate in China.
There was strong public opposition last year when provinces including Zhejiang, Guangxi and Hunan tried to require people to be vaccinated to enter places such as office buildings, supermarkets and subways. National health authorities responded by urging local governments to “correct” the move and calling for vaccination to be “informed, voluntary and carried out with consent”.
In the capital Beijing, authorities sought to introduce a mandate in July to require people to show proof of vaccination to enter public places such as cinemas, libraries, museums, gyms, stadiums and training centres. But it also met with resistance from the public and was scrapped a day after it was announced, before it officially took effect.
