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Why China’s local officials will remain caught in zero-Covid ‘paradox’
- Local governments face ‘inherently contradictory’ task of balancing coronavirus controls and economic challenges without policy support, analysts say
- Beijing names and shames cities for excessive Covid-19 measures while punishing others for not doing enough
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Over the weekend, China’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council named and shamed several city governments for imposing extra measures to fight Covid-19.
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It was not the first time the State Council, China’s cabinet, has warned local governments against taking excessive Covid-19 controls. But observers questioned the effectiveness of these public reprimands as local officials face the impossible task of balancing the demands of the economy and China’s dynamic zero-Covid strategy against the highly contagious Omicron variant.
“The problem is highly paradoxical. The heads of local government cadres are set to roll, either by overdoing Covid containment or failing to contain it,” said Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong.
Several Omicron sublineages are circulating globally, including in China, and are expected to cause new surges because of their ability to spread fast and evade immunity from vaccines and past infections.
“Technically speaking, it is simply impossible to contain the spread of Omicron without intensive measures,” Jin said.
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The State Council on Saturday named Bijie in Guizhou province, Nanchong in Sichuan, and Zhengzhou in Henan as examples of cities that had implemented arbitrary and excessive anti-pandemic measures ranging from citywide lockdowns, travel restrictions and sealing off residential compounds.
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