BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese think tank on Monday announced a rare public disagreement over the ruling Communist Party’s tough ‘zero-coronavirus’ policy, shutting down cities and disrupting trade, travel and industry. Regulations must be changed to prevent an “economic stall”, he said.
The Unbound Research Center did not provide details of possible changes, but said President Xi Jinping’s government needs to focus on supporting sluggish growth. It noted that the US, Europe and Japan are recovering…
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BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese think tank on Monday announced a rare public disagreement over the ruling Communist Party’s tough ‘zero-coronavirus’ policy, shutting down cities and disrupting trade, travel and industry. Regulations must be changed to prevent an “economic stall”, he said.
The Unbound Research Center did not provide details of possible changes, but said President Xi Jinping’s government needs to focus on supporting sluggish growth. noted that Japan is recovering economically after easing curbs on disease control.
“Preventing the risk of an economic stall should be a priority,” the think tank said in a report titled “It’s Time for China to Coordinate Virus Control and Prevention Policies.”
Since at least the 1980s, in a politically sensitive year when China’s most powerful leader, President Xi Jinping, is expected to try to extend his tenure, such sparse public opinion of public policy has been a factor. Even the discrepancies are largely unknown.
The report, dated Sunday, was posted to the popular WeChat messaging platform and the Anbound Research Center account of the Sina Weibo microblogging service, but was removed from both on Monday afternoon.
Anti-virus restrictions are widely expected to last at least until after Communist Party meetings in October and November.
Economists have warned that China will need to boost growth in the first half of 2022, which fell to 2.5% a year ago, after Shanghai and other industrial centers were shut down since late March to fight the virus. This is less than half of the official annual target of 5.5%.
The think-tank said that “China’s economy is at risk of stalling” due to “impacts of epidemic prevention and control policies”.
The economy is also under pressure as property activity plummeted after Beijing tightened restrictions on the industry’s use of debt.
Economists and public health experts have warned that “zero COVID”, which aims to keep the virus out of China by quarantining all cases since mid-2021, is unsustainable. Officials say there is no alternative because allowing the virus to spread would overwhelm Chinese hospitals.
Zhang Wenhong, a Shanghai doctor with 3 million followers on social media, said China’s strategy could change and the world “needs to learn how to live with the virus” after suggesting that the official It was closed due to criticism and was subject to a plagiarism investigation in 2021.
Founded in 1993, Anbound said it served the Communist Party’s Central Financial and Economic Leading Group and provided investigations to government agencies and financial institutions.
That report did not indicate whether it represented the thinking of officials frustrated by the soaring economic and human costs of “zero COVID.”
China’s policies keep deaths and infections low, but the wave of business failures continues.
Local governments are slashing wages for public services and civil servants to pay for virus testing and disease control, according to news reports.
The economic impact of repeated closures of businesses and neighborhoods is more severe than last year, think tanks say. The “freeze effect” could be even worse than when the outbreak began in 2020 and temporarily brought the entire economy to a halt, it said.
On Monday, the southern city of Shenzhen, a technology and financial hub that borders Hong Kong, imposed a three-day shutdown of several residential areas to contain the outbreak and shut down the world’s largest electronics market. Announced.
Also on Monday, the government of Shenyang, the most populous city in the northeast, postponed the start of face-to-face classes for elementary and high school students this week.
China needs to “focus on economic recovery and gradually integrate with the world,” says the Unbound report.
Travel restrictions keep most foreign visitors out. The government has stopped reissuing expired passports and urged citizens to avoid traveling abroad.
Last week, the US government canceled 26 flights from the US to China by Chinese airlines over a dispute over Beijing’s antivirus controls. China previously forced American airlines to cancel as many flights after some passengers tested positive for the virus.
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