Vitality of China’s post COVID-19 reopening to the world

After three years of its dynamic zero-COVID policy, China reopened its doors to allow international travellers in and this is a move with economic implications around the world, including in Africa. On the continent, which counts China as its largest trade partner, African importers who sell affordable Chinese-made goods were itching to return to China to stock up while many African countries are also hoping to attract Chinese tourists. The opening of Chinese borders will boost the African economy as Chinese products are affordable. African traders new to the business will be able to go and make their choices physically in China. However, the decision to reopen the borders by China to the international community has attracted some fierce and unwarranted criticism from some influential western media.

Western media labels the decision as a “mismanaged” exit from its zero COVID policy that is subjecting people to widespread disruptions and health risks. Such rhetoric disregards facts, politicises COVID, and runs counter to the spirit of science. It reveals that in this day and age, some people are still obsessed with bloc confrontation and blinded by arrogance and bias against China. Comparing the politicians with a zero-sum ColdWar mentality, the view from the business sector is that China’s measures will help boost confidence in the world economic growth and bolster world economic recovery and development. Recently, many international investment institutions have revised up their forecast for China’s economic growth rate in 2023. The US, UK, German and many other countries’ chambers of commerce in China noted that China’s COVID policy adaptation helps restore cross-border travel, particularly business travel, and market optimism. They believe that China will continue to be a priority destination for foreign investment. China’s further adaptation of its entry policy has significantly boosted regional economy and global trade. If one reflects deeper into such Western critics, one can safely argue that the criticisms are harshly unjust, hypocritical and full of double standards. It must be noted that the majority of states in the international community including much of the Western world has opened up their borders after some tight restrictions due to the COVID-19. Many countries have vaccinated their populations and put up some measures to contain the pandemic thus seeing it fit to open borders for global trade and travel. It is against this background that the decision to open borders by China is a very good one that can go a long way in benefiting many countries especially those from Africa. Many African countries such as Botswana have some deep economic and diplomatic relationships with China and the reopening of the borders to the international community can go a long way in cementing that relationship. For example, the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is one of the multilateral partnership platforms between China and 53 African countries which can further be strengthened and entrenched in the post–COVID through trade and cultural exchange. In short, the opening of Chinese borders will boost the economy of many African states as Chinese products are affordable. In addition, new companies in China will take this opportunity to convince traders from Africa to do business with them. Besides FOCAC, China has come up with the Global Development Initiative (GDI), which is aimed at seeing a post-COVID world with more blissful development. This is a very vital initiative that was unveiled by President Xi Jinping in 2021, which will be very important to developing countries such as Botswana in terms of poverty alleviation, public health and other issues. In other words, the GDI is a way to support economic and social development around the world in response to setbacks caused by COVID-19 and it is a crucial new effort to help accelerate momentum on the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and steer global Development towards a new state of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth. This is very important for developing countries such as Botswana as they stand to benefit from priority areas such as food security, COVID vaccines, finance for development, climate change and green development, industrialisation, digitisation and connectivity. This initiative can only become successful when China has opened its borders to the international community. As the international community is moving towards the post-COVID phase, it is very crucial for China to open its borders to the international community for the GDI to succeed and benefit the developing world especially in Africa. Last but not least, Botswana and other countries in Africa stand to benefit from other areas such as scholarships, tourism and travel when Chinese borders are open. Annually there are many Batswana students who enjoy scholarships in China and the closing of the borders due to COVID-19 negatively impacted on some eligible students. It is therefore in the interest of Botswana as the reopening of the borders can go a long way in benefiting many youths who want to further their studies in China. This is in addition to the boost in cultural tourism for citizens from both Botswana and China.

From what have been posited, it is safe to argue that it is not true that the decision by China to open the borders will be disruptive to the global economy but instead it creates a vast array of opportunities that can go a long way in boosting the global economy to grow via multilateral arrangements such as FOCAC, GDI and others. The isolation of China from the international community will not be good for global trade hence a good decision by China to reopen her borders to the international community.