Other hard-nosed countries have eased strict pandemic measures, but there is no sign that #China is moving toward a policy of "coexisting" with coronavirus. My latest: dw.com/en/how-long-wi…
Even as such countries as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore recently relaxed strict zero-COVID policiesthat became untenable with the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, China continues with its drive to completely eliminate COVID-19.
At the start of the pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party praised its authoritarian system as an example for controlling the pandemic.
Strict local lockdowns, mass testing of entire cities and travel restrictions are all credited with helping the country getting back to feet as the rest of the world suffered from surging cases and the prolonged economic disruption of lockdowns.
Though these strategies ensured that Chinese citizens could get back to a relative level of normalcy ahead of other parts of the world, experts question whether strict measures are still needed almost two years after SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in the central city of Wuhan .
Some experts predict that China is unlikely to reopen until at least after the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Authorities announced in September that spectators from outside China would not be allowed to attend the games.
"I don't think China will ease public health measures before the Winter Olympics," said Chen Xi, an associate professor of public health at Yale School of Public Health.
"The most recent outbreak came from the weeklong national holiday in China, which spread the virus to so many provinces across the country. That made the government worry that things could get worse if they reopen the border now," he added.
Several experts have pointed to the relatively low efficacy of China's domestically manufactured vaccines as a possible cause of the government's persistence to keep enforcing the zero-COVID strategy.
China's Sinovac and Sinopharm COVID vaccines were respectively 51% and 79% effective at preventing symptomatic infection, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), citing data from phase 3 trials.
Some experts say there are still some doubts about how effective the Chinese vaccines are against the delta variant. This is also combined with a lack of data shared publicly by Chinese authorities on how effective Chinese vaccines are against other variants.
"I think they don't have confidence in their own vaccine, so, despite having vaccinated more than 70% of its population, China didn't really relax their restrictions," said Chunhuei Chi, director of the Center for Global Health at Oregon State University in the US.
@KarenGrepin told DW that China is waiting for optimal conditions before lowering its guard.

"While its vaccination rate is high, the vaccines that have been predominantly used are not as effective as some other vaccines. There are probably some concerns about that."
Chen said the Winter Olympics and the 2022 National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party would factor into Beijing's decision on maintaining a zero-COVID policy.
"While those events may still seem far away, if there is an outbreak, government officials will be under tremendous pressure as that may send bad signals to the public," he said.
"Even from the local perspective," he said, "they will have the strong incentive to overreact rather than underreact."
Grepin said it would be important for officials to have a clear plan for transitioning from total prevention to "living with the virus" before loosening restrictions.
"I think it's an advantage for China to think through the plan before they make the transition," she said. "Until they have a good plan, I believe these measures should remain in place."

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with William Yang

William Yang Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @WilliamYang120

11 Nov
A lack of top-tier intelligence on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s inner circle is frustrating senior Biden administration officials struggling to get ahead of Beijing’s next steps. By @PeterMartin_PCM, @JenniferJJacobs and @nwadhams: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Those officials, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive issues, say China is becoming a harder target, more opaque, just as the demand for insights into Xi’s decision-making is soaring and ...
... tensions with the U.S. are heating up over issues from Taiwan to high technology.
Read 9 tweets
10 Nov
Tibet's spiritual leader @DalaiLama criticised the leaders of #China, saying they "don't understand the variety of different cultures" there and there is too much control by the main Han ethnic group. taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4340738
"I know Communist Party leaders since Mao Zedong. Their ideas (are) good. But sometimes they do much extreme, tight control," he said from his base in India, adding he thought things would change in China under a new generation of leaders.
"Regarding Tibet and also Xinjiang, we have our own unique culture, so the more narrow-minded Chinese Communist leaders, they do not understand the variety of different cultures."
Read 7 tweets
10 Nov
Angry thread: #Taiwan said it hopes to attract 100,000 foreign talents to Taiwan by 2030. However, the reality on the ground for maintaining foreign talents who are genuinely hoping to stay in Taiwan is the complete opposite. Here's why: ctee.com.tw/news/tax-law/5…
A friend of mine, who works for a local company here, has been contributing to a recently-launched project that truly needs foreign talents who has the knowledge about #Taiwan and the expertise that is in great shortage here.
That person was originally here on a certain visa type and after he was successfully hired by this local/government-supported initiative, he was recently told that his visa is coming up and he needs to leave #Taiwan on time, despite he is actually employed by a ...
Read 11 tweets
10 Nov
New report by @UyghurProject: "Among the 72 #Uyghurs living in liberal democracies surveyed for this report, 95.8 % of whom reported feeling threatened and 73.5% noted that they had experienced digital risks, threats, or other forms of online harassment." uhrp.org/report/your-fa…
"Members of Uyghur communities worldwide are interested in protecting themselves, with 89.7% of respondents expressing interest in increasing their security knowledge."
"Many respondents did not feel that this protection would necessarily come from their home governments—44.1% felt that their host governments take the intimidation they face seriously, with only 20.5% feel that the host governments would fix these issues."
Read 4 tweets
10 Nov
Chinese authorities have issued warnings about parcels being potentially contaminated with #Covid19 just as #China's biggest annual online shopping festival looms, after three workers at a small company that makes children's clothing tested positive. straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia…
Authorities are testing packages and monitoring people who've handled them after the infections were discovered at Haohui Ecommerce Co., which is based in Hebei, a province surrounding Beijing.
Some 300 packages have been tested, all coming back negative. Testing has also taken place in a small county in south China's Guangxi, where 16 parcels from the company were shipped in what authorities described as a "Covid-related mail chain".
Read 4 tweets
10 Nov
U.S. President Joe Biden and #China's President Xi Jinping are scheduled to hold a virtual summit next week, although no specific date has been set, according to people familiar with the matter. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The exact date of the summit is still being negotiated, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. The session won’t address the issue of whether the U.S. consulate in Chengdu and the Chinese consulate in Houston will reopen.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre had reiterated Monday that there was “an agreement in principle” for a virtual meeting “before the end of the year.”
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(