China’s Covid lunacy

The ongoing madness that underpins China’s zero-covid strategy continues to wreak havoc in the People’s Republic and will soon be felt around the world. The weeks-long lockdowns of Shanghai and Shenzhen, two of the world’s largest cities, financial centres and ports, will have a knock-on effect on the global economy, already reeling from the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The latter has hit commodity supplies, threatening food shortages in countries that rely on grain shipment from Ukraine. China is the world’s biggest exporter of consumer and tech goods which are either not being produced or will be stuck as supply lines seize up.

For the people trapped in their homes, as officials in hazmat suits patrol the streets to arrest anyone who transgresses the lockdown, things are bad. Food is running out, children are taken away to hostels, entire apartment blocks are evacuated for fumigation – all in the name of eradicating a virus that is now more infectious than ever.

China’s vaccine programme, especially among the elderly, is far behind the West’s – largely because the regime promised to “defeat Covid” but can’t. It is trapped in a spiral where to change policy now is to appear weak, which is anathema to totalitarian governments.

The wider ramifications are still to be felt. One in five container ships remain stuck at ports worldwide, with 30 per cent of the backlog coming from China. Controls in Shenzhen have been lifted but if they remain in Shanghai for much longer the supply chain impact will be considerable.

This will inevitably have an effect on costs and prices just at a time when inflation is at its highest rate for many years and people are already feeling a cost of living crunch. Two years after the pandemic took a grip, the economic consequences of trying to stop it are far from over.