Infections continue to rise Chineseexceeded the psychological threshold of a thousand cases a day Weeks ago, there were barely dozens before quarantines completely eliminated new and more infectious variants.
The craziest application of politics covid zero filled social networks with anger about recent events guangzhou. Residents of 84 houses found the doors open when they returned from the regulation. After being found positive in their building, they were quarantined at a hotel they fulfilled. They were demolished by the authorities for disinfection missions and searching for close people they thought were hidden. Ask the owners for keys it seemed to them a more cumbersome operation than a few hammer blows and kicks.
Authorities have already apologized for the “simple and violent” behavior and promised compensation and punishment. The episode, rough and isolated, offended and surprised many. Also, because such nonsense is expected from over-enthusiastic savage officials in some rural states. guangzhou, the glittering and cosmopolitan Cantonese capital. In Beijing, for example, courtesy reigns: the first citizen complaints were enough for authorities to waive the requirement for vaccination testing at the entrance to public places.
Foci at two opposite points
Moreover, the current pandemic in China is sliding towards a routine escalation of cases. They are ridiculously large, unlike Westerners, but they are enough to bring down a government that seeks to deport the virus. Spotlights are concentrated in two opposite points of the country. Almost one week jailor to accumulate four million inhabitants lanzhou, the capital of the northwestern province of Gansu. Inside beihai, Thousands of visitors have been stranded in the area, which is a popular tourist destination on the east coast, as authorities issued an emergency quarantine order. About twenty cases are enough Shanghai For the big tests to get back to twelve of the 16 districts.
China is the only country among the major economies to stick to its zero covid policy, which includes c.incarceration, testing and border closures. There is no doubt on the economic bill. Coinciding with the prolonged Shanghai lockdown, second-quarter growth was 0.4%. It’s the lowest figure in two years and makes the 5.5% annual target unrealistic. A sudden acceleration is necessary in the second half of the year, which will not come without leaving politics. President Xi Jinping reiterated that the life and health of the population is a priority for a few tenths of GDP.
If it is added to the carefree coexistence with the virus in most of the West, the tragedy of millions of deaths awaits China. Low vaccination of the elderly and poor hospital network Most rural provinces leave little room for action, but while the defense of politics is integral in politics and media discourse, some gestures point to a soft return. The quarantine for those arriving in China was recently reduced from two or three weeks to just one week, and relaxation is likely to increase after the Communist Party convention in October.
Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post announced this week that Beijing has invited the United States.The presidents of Germany, France, Italy and Spain will meet in the capital By November, almost three years will be over without face-to-face Chinese diplomacy if it happens. And China has already confirmed that it will host a major sporting event across Asia in 2023, which it canceled this year. This presumed easing comes without the death rate of covid, which approaches the mortality of the widespread flu or pandemic seen in the rest of the world, two conditions China has highlighted as necessary to open the country.