© Hector Retamal/AFP.Health workers wait to test passengers for Covid-19 after their arrival at Hongqiao railway station in Shanghai on December 6, 2022.
China announced Wednesday a nationwide loosening of its hardline Covid restrictions that had hammered the world's second biggest economy and ignited rare protests against the ruling Communist Party.
The new rules are a major relaxation of President Xi Jinping's signature zero-Covid policy, three years into the pandemic and long after the rest of the world had largely learnt to live with the virus.
However, with vaccination rates remaining low among China's elderly and a health system still regarded as ill-prepared for a wave of infections, Xi has not abandoned travel curbs and heavy testing completely.
Under the new guidelines announced by the National Health Commission, the frequency and scope of PCR testing — long a tedious mainstay of life in zero-Covid China — will be reduced.
Lockdowns — a major source of public anger — will also be limited to as small a scope as is feasible, and authorities are required to free areas that show no positive cases after five days.
People with non-severe Covid infections can isolate at home instead of centralised government facilities.
And people will no longer be required to show a green health code on their phone to enter public buildings and spaces, except for "nursing homes, medical institutions, kindergartens, middle and high schools".China will also accelerate the vaccination of the elderly, the health commission said, long seen as a major obstacle to the relaxation zero-Covid.
'It's about time'Until recently, Xi and the Chinese propaganda apparatus had hailed zero-Covid as a triumph of communist rule that had kept deaths low compared with democratic countries such as the United States.
But rare demonstrations against the strategy broke out across China late last month, with people railing against the restrictions.
The protests expanded into calls for more political freedoms, with some even calling for Xi to resign, turning into the most widespread opposition to communist rule since the 1989 democracy uprising that the military crushed.
All the while, a stream of data showed the massive impacts of zero-Covid on China's economy — with spill on effects for the world.
The government released data just before Wednesday's announcement stating imports in November had fallen 10.6 percent year-on-year, the biggest drop since May 2020.Exports fell 8.7 percent over the same period.Authorities quickly cracked down on the demonstrations, sending security forces into the streets and deploying its high-tech surveillance system against protesters.
However they also began easing restrictions, with some Chinese cities tentatively rolling back mass testing and curbs on movement.And once dominated by coverage of the dangers of the virus and scenes of pandemic chaos abroad, China's state-run media dramatically shifted tone to support a moving away from zero-Covid.
There were immediate signs of relief in China following Wednesday's announcement.
"It's about time to open up, its been three years already, we should open up fully," one Beijing resident who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.
"People need to work and eat, you can't just tell people not to leave their homes anymore," they added.
"If people are worried now, they should stay home and avoid coming out, other people need to work and get on with life."
Searches on the country's biggest travel app, Ctrip, for flight tickets ahead of next month's Chinese New Year hit a three-year-high, state-run media outlet The Paper reported.
Analysts at Japanese firm Nomura said they projected China's GDP would rebound next year in the wake of the relaxations.
But, they warned, China "does not appear to be well prepared for a massive wave of Covid infections".
"It may have to pay for its procrastination on embracing a 'living with Covid' approach," they said in an email.
Reader Comments
The western govts used Covid as an excuse to usher in more social control and accumulate power for themselves... China, already has extreme social control and the authoritarian systems in place... therefore, given what we know about covid and it's lethality, why did China double down so hard on Covid restrictions? They have nothing to gain from it. Unless, the CCP leadership actually believes Covid is the deadly virus the media says it is... OR. They know something about Covid that we don't.
Any thoughts?
I think sometimes when you go fishing you catch nothing, but I think that doesn't matter too much assuming you don't need those fish to live another day. If you do, then use a net, but if there are not fish left to be caught, then I think your days are numbered. So the best fisherman knows to leave some fish in the sea for the future is what I think.
That is what I think....just to effing say it again.
Ken
No disrespect meant, but seriously - you give them energy with your fear of them.
Take that away and they are just helpless - like the rest of us.
Ken
jews, or rather the zionist piss me off to no end, and you know I've gone on record with that, but sometimes giving them heed just makes it worse and energy better spent on solutions than griping about this or that.Ken
In 2023, I hope to have the pub open many times, but as for 2022, I just want it to end.
Ken
Zero-Covid, by definition seems to be a concept of domination upon every day regular folk and is it not true that gubment is in the interest of the People?
If that is true, then it seems this whole exercise has been just that - a trial run of domination over the top and I refute it with all my soul.
When foolish ones who think they are "exceptional" go for it and try to dominate completely, that is when they learn about things they never considered possible, and if they learn, if they have a chance to learn, then they get some humility - otherwise they get death permanent and swiftly seems to be.
Otherwise, they die ingloriously forever to be forgotten as perpetuators of bad ideas gone wrong.
Do you want to bet on it?
My bet is on local commerce and dominators are on notice - they are being exposed rapidly now and their days are numbered.