Opinion | The Principles of China's zero-COVID approach remain correct

By Tom Fowdy

On the morning of Monday (April 25), Chinese authorities reported that a record 51 people had died in Shanghai as the full lockdown of the municipality enters its third week. The death toll has been steadily creeping up as local officials pursue wave after wave of daily mass testing, which has sought to contain a highly contagious omicron variant. The situation has been of much criticism amongst locals themselves, who have complained about food supply and vented frustration at their economic protests, which has predictably been jumped upon by the western media who has sought to depict China's "zero covid" approach as both arbitrary and oppressive, whilst also attacking Chinese vaccines and saying the country needs "western MRNA" ones.

But this western criticism conveniently overlooks the reality that in these countries, where leaders tout "living with covid" as some kind of triumph, things are not really going according to plan. In the United Kingdom, as of this morning, the 7-day average daily death toll stands at 456 per day, with numbers spiking over 600 twice in the past two days. The data shows a smaller, yet similar story in the United States, with the total toll topping 1 million. Whilst it is typical of the west to scorn at China's own death numbers out of unnecessary political manipulation, the mounting death toll in Shanghai is demonstrative of what would be a much larger toll if the country prematurely drops its zero-covid approach. People will die in large numbers. With Shanghai, the method of handling the situation may have been flawed, but the principles are right.

It is easy out of bias towards China to overlook the critical reality that most western countries have absconded fighting the covid-19 pandemic out of political and economic situations. The western public's desire for unbridled liberty, its resenting of mask and vaccination mandates and the political toll of taking such unpopular decisions has effectively made governments give up prematurely which has, despite vaccination drives, led to immense costs in terms of human life because of the scientific reality that even though Omicron is a less deadly constraint, nonetheless proper "herd immunity" has not yet been properly reached and therefore "living with covid" as the UK government framed it, is misnomer. The death toll doesn't lie.

For China, a country of 1.4 billion people with a huge population density, such a strategy would easily promulgate case counts in the millions and daily death tolls that would quickly exceed 5000 minimum. For the authorities, this outcome is an unacceptable act of gross negligence and public health failure. China's persistent and for some, frustrating, adherence to zero-covid policies is ultimately scientific, even if we can admit the circumstances which created the Shanghai lockdown were a local administrative failure. The management of this situation does not change the scientific reality. China is not going to cede its zero-covid policies until greater herd immunity has been established. More must be done in terms of vaccinating its elderly population, whilst patience must be applied towards the virus becoming less lethal as it continues to evolve.

In the meanwhile, China has many options to experiment with in making its approach more dynamic, less pre-emptive and less-disruptive, but these debates are ultimately driven by scientific principles and not as the case in the west, ideology or individualism. Whilst these countries continue to crow about the merits of freedom, as they like to say to China itself "but at what cost?". Denial and indifference are not strategies for public health, and if it of course were Beijing which had readily allowed so many people to die of a pandemic, they would be being accused of an ideological and systematic failure, as well as a coverup. No matter what the story is, the west will ultimately use covid to project its own perceived superiorities towards China, deflect from their failures and yet negate the underlying reality at hand.

The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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