A man in a protective suit stands at a shopping mall in Wuhan, February 25. REUTERS/Stringer
Melinda Liu, Foreign Policy: How Do You Keep China’s Economy Running With 750 Million in Quarantine?
The “demon virus” threat has rattled the confidence of many Chinese in the regime’s ability to protect people’s lives and jobs.
BEIJING—Returning to China in mid-February, I had seemingly stepped into a parallel universe. Much of Beijing looked, and even smelled, like the familiar metropolis in which I’ve lived for decades. Except for one thing.
Where were all the people?
The Chinese capital has more than 20 million residents. But the coronavirus that burst out of Hubei province—infecting some 79,000 worldwide and killing more than 2,600 (mostly in China)—had almost emptied Beijing’s vast boulevards. I felt as if I’d stumbled onto the set of a post-apocalyptic film. (Though the city confirmed only four coronavirus deaths, everyone was jittery about infection.) In my silent apartment building, 36 pages of warnings, notices, instructions, and lists of fever clinics were taped neatly to the lobby walls, with 11 more in the elevator. They told returnees to Beijing to scan a QR code (leading to a nosy questionnaire) and isolate themselves at home for 14 days.
I was asked some obvious questions: “Have you been to Hubei?” where the provincial capital, Wuhan, was the epicenter of the outbreak. (I haven’t been for years.) Plus less obvious questions, like my ethnic background and “Are you a member of the Communist Party?” I thought: Does being a member of the Chinese Communist Party have anything to do with whether one’s infected or not?
Actually, the party has something to do with everything in China, especially under Xi Jinping—and suddenly, for Xi, that has become a double-edged sword. As president, party head, and top military commander, Xi has consolidated his authority, centralized decision-making, abolished presidential term limits, and promoted his loyalists. People expect Xi, China’s “chairman of everything,” to fix everything when it goes wrong.
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WNU Editor: You cannot run an economy when your population is under quarantine. All of my business contacts in China are telling me the same thing. Their businesses are shut down, and even if they want to open up, most of their employees will not show up. But on a positive note, they know that when this is all over, the pent-up demand that has built up with everything shut down will usher in a boom period that will last a long time. At least that is what they are hoping for.
7 comments:
Well, typically - and you can look at natural disasters over decades, the history shows it over and over - countries or states who got hit and lost maybe 1-2% GDP that year (see Thai floods as example, or Tsunami in Japan, or when a US state has a flood etc) bounce back, and bounce back quickly.
However, I've never seen anything on the scale in China and severity. But still, they will bounce back, but I just don't see it that quickly or fully.
The reason: Most natural disasters - bad as they are - destroy physical infrastructure which is then rebuilt, often using large percentages of insurance (at least in the Western world, not so much in many Asian countries where insurance uptake and insurance maturity just isn't there yet).. either way, it's often physical goods that are then bought often at high demand and inflated prices.
This is not the case with a viral infection. Sure, there are plenty of medical goods (and the manufacturers and dealers make a TON of profit, just as they have when they pushed SARS and MERS on us.. notice this? since 2000s suddenly we get so super worried and suddenly it's a thingy that every 5-6 years these companies (and media companies) make a KILLING (pun intended) on stoking fear, inflating prices etc.
This virus has killed FEWER people than the common flu, but at the same time we say it's more deadly.
The flu kills _EVERY YEAR_ millions around the world. Not hundreds, not thousands, not tens of thousands. MILLIONS. in the USA alone, every year hundreds of thousands die of the flu. But this virus, OOOOOH boy you better be scared and go shopping and watch CNN. *facepalm* but honestly, no one knows.. but my guess is, having worked in these industries.. someone is making a killing. And it happens more and more often. SARS...MERS... COVID-19.. and it's always the same guys making the killing. When will policy and governance catch up? Time for long, loooooong prison sentences. In my book it's worse than plundering (which you do often for necessity to survive). Spreading this fear for profit.. just wow. But I might be wrong and it truly is a killer virus (in that case we should see about 10million dead people in one year, because that's what the flu kills in an average year)... see all those body bags pilling up on TV? NO? because it's just a damn flu. the hundreds dead in China is sad, sad terrible. But at the same time TENS of THOUSANDS died of the common flu. Where is the parade for them???
Good post.
Good talk about house arrest wow communication gets around fast
Dont come out stay home sick dogs
So retarded
Bio weapon
And a good one
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