A Peek Into Everyday China: Victory, Tang Ping and Chernobyl by Lt Gen P R Shankar (R)

Sowing panic among consumers and businesses is the price China is willing to pay to maintain its zero-tolerance approach to the virus. Public health objectives – which reflect the government’s unwavering resolve to avoid mass fatalities in a nation with relatively low vaccination rates among the elderly and less effective vaccines – have long trumped economic goals. China is caught in an economic trap of its own making

 

These are not my word but from an article in South China Morning Post. Having said, this article indicates how extensively China has scored a self-goal with Zero Covid. However, do they have an alternative? I doubt. The extent of misery wreaked by the Wuhan Virus is very wide and severe. Like before, these are headlines with some content extracted this month from The South China Morning Post . Very clearly, the Virus has put China in a ‘Tang Ping’ position….Tang Ping means lying flat…China has changed course from Victory Laps into Tang Ping!    

 

Xi takes a victory lap over China’s success against Covid as pandemic rages around the world

The pomp-filled show saw none of the participants, including Xi, wear masks and the president shook hands with several people, a striking display of China’s progress.

Xi: Virus victory proof of party’s ‘superiority’

President honours scientists, health workers but not whistle blowers as China ’emerges stronger from pandemic’

Snap Covid lockdowns turn summer holidays into nightmare for tens of thousands of Chinese tourists

Visitors to some of the country’s most popular destinations have found themselves stranded at short notice – often because of a small handful of cases…The authorities had eased travel restrictions this year in the hope of boosting the tourist sector after zero-Covid continued to take its toll on the economy…But unlike previous years, local authorities are now introducing snap lockdowns after recording just a handful of cases after similar measures were credited with stopping an outbreak in Shenzhen in March….These lockdowns usually last for five to seven days, but can stretch into weeks or even months – leaving travellers unsure when or how they can get home

China’s zero-Covid strategy, tumbling tax revenue put local government services and jobs under threat

The suspension of public transport services and delayed salary payments to civil servants have sparked concern about the fiscal condition of local governments…Stringent coronavirus controls, falling revenue from land sales and Covid-related tax cuts are coming at a huge cost to cash-strapped local governments…Dancheng, a town with a population of 1.06 million in central Henan province, suspended bus services last Friday….“The bus company has difficulty operating, and the drivers’ salaries have not been paid for several months, which has led to the services suspension of all urban buses,” Meanwhile, multiple bus lines in Boluo county, Guangdong province, have also been slashed or suspended due to financial stress, according to a Caixin report on Sunday.

Coronavirus: bizarre clip of medical workers testing live seafood widely ridiculed for insane extent of China’s dynamic zero-Covid rule

A Chinese port city has ordered PCR tests on live seafood including fish, crabs and shrimp amid fears they are the source of a new Covid outbreak…PCR tests have been conducted on a variety of animals including chickens and cats across China over the past couple of years

         

China’s zero-Covid policy is thwarting efforts to stabilise the economy

Beijing is trying to simultaneously pursue a zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19, reduce debt exposure and ease monetary policy to boost growth…These policies contradict each other, though, and draconian, growth-sapping lockdowns stand in the way of rebuilding consumer and investor confidence…For an indication of the scale of the challenge confronting China’s slowing economy, look no further than the pandemonium at an Ikea outlet in Shanghai last Saturday. The sudden announcement of a snap lockdown of the store sent shoppers fleeing and screaming as they sought to leave the building before the doors were locked.

China’s e-commerce industry hit as delivery and live-streaming hub Yiwu enters second week of citywide Covid-19 lockdown

A representative for Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistic arm, said it was storing newly-arrived products at its Shanghai warehouse to keep operations running smoothly..Before the latest Covid-19 outbreak, the Yiwu government had been making efforts to reconnect with overseas buyers from Pakistan and India

China’s GDP growth forecasts slashed as coronavirus, a property sector slump and heatwaves erode economic recovery

Global investment banks Standard Chartered, Goldman Sachs and Nomura have all cut their 2022 economic growth forecasts for China…New coronavirus outbreaks and downward pressure on the real estate market are chief reasons China’s economic recovery is losing steam

China’s strict Covid-19 control measures, not video game licensing curbs, are wreaking havoc on esports market, insiders say

Strict pandemic controls make it tough for esports competition organisers to stage offline events, host audiences and communicate with various clubs…By contrast, esports events in the United States, such as the EVO 2022 Tekken 7 tournament in Las Vegas, have been drawing large audiences

Human cost of China’s zero-Covid policy measured in stress, anxiety

Lockdowns and unpredictable restrictions have led to soaring mental health problems in numbers which may exceed global averages…‘Collective psychological trauma’ a consequence of the country’s unprecedented measures to control the pandemic

China’s lockdowns, other rigid Covid-19 control measures heighten worries of worsening economy for nation’s middle class

On China’s internet, ‘run’ – as in, flee the country – gained momentum as the word of the year after Shanghai was put under a draconian Covid-19 lockdown…What lies behind that word is growing anxiety by the affluent urban middle class over China’s future

Will China’s art market and exhibition scene recover any time soon following Covid lockdowns?

Some gallerists see recovery as still some way off as Shanghai and Beijing bustle to resume exhibitions suspended by China’s spring Covid-19 lockdowns…Insiders say recent stand-out Shanghai shows include Jennifer Guidi at Long Museum (West Bund), Ma Qiusha at Longlati Foundation and Thomas Demand at UCCA Edge

KFC, Pizza Hut operator Yum China reports 54 per cent profit drop after Covid-19 curbs kept diners at bay

The fast-food giant said its earnings in the three months ended June 30 came to US$83 million, down 54 per cent from the same period last year…‘We have been battling the pandemic for the past two and a half years. The second quarter was the most challenging to date,’ says CEO…Nearly all restaurant in Shanghai, the mainland’s commercial and financial capital with a population of 25 million, were closed between April 1 and May 31 amid the citywide lockdown….Most of them have yet to return to pre-lockdown levels after reopening on June 1….According to Linkshop, a consultancy serving retail businesses, a total of 39 restaurant chains either halted operations or went bankrupt in the first half of this year.

Covid-19 in China: panic in Ikea as health authorities lock down store

Videos on social media show mayhem as shoppers tried to get out before the doors were locked…‘Temporary control measures’ imposed after authorities found out a close contact of a case had visited

Losses mount at China’s big three state-owned airlines as zero-Covid policy deters travel

Since the start of the pandemic, combined losses at Air China, China Southern and China Eastern have reached US$18.5 billion..The three carriers placed a US$37 billion order for Airbus aircraft in July.. While the rest of the world has moved on to living with Covid and treating it as endemic, China is persisting with trying to stamp out the virus. Its borders have been largely sealed throughout the pandemic, leading to a collapse in international flights.. Domestic air services have propped up carriers, but not enough to stem losses, and lockdowns in places such as Shanghai and tourist hotspot like Sanya are major deterrents to even internal travel.

Young and out of a job in China: how Covid-19 is creating an unemployment crisis

Youth unemployment rate rose from 15.3 per cent in January to 19.9 per cent in July as a record 10 million university graduates entered the job market

Amid the ‘lying flat’ movement and pessimism among youth, President Xi pledges a fairer environment for everyone to take part in China’s rejuvenation

Lockdowns in China’s tech hub Shenzhen spread to manufacturing centres with Apple factories

In-door businesses and large-scale events have been suspended in Shenzhen’s industrial districts of Longgang and Longhua…Residents in seven subdistricts across Futian, Luohu and Longgang have been ordered to work from home and avoid going outside

Shenzhen shuts world’s biggest electronics wholesale market Huaqiangbei for 4 days as city steps up Covid-19 control

Huaqiangbei district in China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen, a global electronics sourcing centre, has been ordered to close from Monday to Thursday…The city of over 17 million, which managed to contain a Covid-19 outbreak within a week in March, has been hailed as a model of effective governance

Hainan’s Covid chaos exposes the bad, ugly – and scary – of China’s virus control measures

My family’s 23-day holiday nightmare is finally over. But it serves as more that just a cautionary tale for travellers in zero-Covid China…It’s a story of local officials ignoring direct orders from Beijing, and an arbitrary, abusable health code system being used for social control

My Comment : Very clearly, Covid is having an extensive negative effect on China…however that is not the real issue. The issue is that  Chinese people are in misery…with the Wuhan Virus turning into a slow burning endemic, this misery will last for at least a couple of years. It is also reflective of the fear of the Communists that they will lose power if they change tack now. If there is one thing which comes through it is that China is in a ‘dammed if you do and damned if you don’t’ situation.. it is economic losses vs loss of life…. as the rope threatens to burn from both ends …it is represents CHINESE DECLINE. It also proves that Communism gives you the worst form of government. Initially it appears very attractive. In the long term it is self-destructive. In my opinion, China could be edging to a Chernobyl kind of a meltdown. It took 5 years for Chernobyl to dismantle USSR. It is only two years since the Wuhan Virus has entered the scene…wait for some more time…I have been writing articles that the Wuhan Virus is China’s Chernobyl. If you read all those articles (links below), you will notice that with time their tone has changed. Initially it was probably a gauche wish list…now there is more substance to the Chernobyl theory… fundamentally, USSR could not balance out its oversizing military with its under sizing economy. China is heading  into that trap set by the combination of the Virus and ageing. When one goes off the other will set in to press things home while Xi keeps his pedal on the accelerator. 

https://www.gunnersshot.com/2020/04/corona-chinese-chernoybyl-by-lt-gen-p-r.html

https://www.gunnersshot.com/2020/06/wuhan-to-galwan-chernobyl-factor-by-lt.html

https://www.gunnersshot.com/2021/04/china-chernobyl-and-virus-gradually.html

https://www.gunnersshot.com/2022/02/wuhan-chinas-chernobyl-by-lt-gen-pr.html

https://www.gunnersshot.com/2022/08/ailing-china-on-decline-by-lt-gen-pr.html