Vital support for the global supply chains

China’s ‘COVID-Zero’policy helped ensure flow of goods, report says

The global supply chain strain and inflation could be much worse if China, also known as the world’s factory, had not taken a sweeping approach to COVID-19, according to an article in Bloomberg Businessweek last week.

China’s zero-tolerance policy has worked exceptionally well at avoiding mass infections and deaths, wrote James Mayger, a Bloomberg reporter in Beijing, in the article titled “Why the World Needs China’s COVID-Zero Policy”.

Its zero-tolerance approach of lockdowns, mass testings and strict border quarantines over the past two years “has prevented a huge number of deaths at home and ensured that everything from iPhones and Teslas to fertilizer and car parts continues to flow to the rest of the world”.

He rebutted Beijing’s critics who claim the policy has harmed China’s economy and posed risks to global supply chains, and even Olympic athletes’ human rights.

“If consumers and businesses want to continue to buy goods made in China without having to endure shortages and further price hikes, they should want China to stick with its ‘COVID-Zero’ policy,” Mayger wrote.

On Jan 14, China’s General Administration of Customs published data on the nation’s imports and exports for December. The total value reached $586.5 billion, with exports at $340.5 billion, a 20.9 percent rise year-on-year, and imports at $246 billion, a 19.5 percent yearon-year increase.

China’s imports and exports reached a new level in 2021, exceeding $6 trillion annually for the first time. Exports to the United States rose 21.2 percent year-on-year.

Mayger wrote that while restrictions under the policy have led to temporary shutdowns of ports and factories, China’s industries have so far “come through the pandemic remarkably unscathed”.

“Exports hit records in 2020 and then again in 2021, and if it had not been for that constant stream of goods, prices of US imports would have risen even faster, and shortages of products, both essential and luxury, would have been even more pronounced,” Mayger wrote.

“That steady supply may be difficult to maintain when China does eventually reopen its borders and gets rid of internal COVID controls.”

Mayger offered further explanation on Twitter.

“It may come as a surprise to many people in other nations, but it’s pretty clear that China is sticking with ... COVID-Zero policies. Why should you care? Well, if they were to stop, a lot of what you buy might get a lot more expensive or scarce,” he wrote, adding that “this doesn’t mean that China will never open up, but the government thinks the benefits still outweigh the costs”.

The “benefits” probably include saving lives.

According to Johns Hopkins University, China’s COVID-19 death toll is 4,636, a number that has barely changed over time. In the US, the deaths attributed to COVID-19 surpassed 900,000 on Feb 4.

A Chinese study estimated that had China not implemented its COVID-Zero policy, there would have been more than 234 million infections in a year, including 64 million symptomatic cases and 2 million deaths, China CDC Weekly reported.

Tom Frieden, president of nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives, said in December that China was doing a better job than the US in controlling the pandemic, and the US should admit it.

“We have to recognize both the tremendous success that China has done controlling COVID — it’s remarkable — and we have to recognize that the US is dealing with a very fragmented polity, where you know there is a disagreement about everything from where the sun rises and sets, to the gravity now in the US,” he said.

China is doing a better job than the US in controlling the pandemic, and the US should admit it.

TOM FRIEDEN President of nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives