Sweeping moves to restore normality in China

Beijing — China has announced the most sweeping changes to its tough anti-Covid regime since the pandemic began three years ago, loosening rules that curbed the spread of the virus but sparked protest and hobbled the world’s second-largest economy.

The relaxation of rules, which includes letting infected people with mild symptoms to quarantine at home and dropping testing for people travelling domestically, is the clearest sign yet that Beijing is pivoting away from its zero-Covid policy to let people live with the disease.

But health officials still warn that trends in deaths will be watched closely in case tougher measures are needed.

Many of the changes announced on Wednesday by the National Health Commission (NHC) reflected steps already taken in various cities and regions in recent days after protests against Covid controls became the biggest display of public discontent since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

Citizens cheered the prospect of a shift that could see China emerge slowly back into the world three years after the virus was identified in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.

The announcement soared to the top most-viewed topic on China’s Weibo platform, with many hoping for normality after policies that have brought mental suffering to tens of millions.

“It’s time for our lives to return to normal, and for China to return to the world,” wrote one Weibo user.

For nearly three years, China managed Covid as a disease on par with bubonic plague and cholera. As cases spread this year, whole communities were locked down, sometimes for months.

Dozens of people also flocked to the Weibo account of Li Wenliang, a doctor in Wuhan who died in 2020 after sounding an early alarm on Covid-19 and whose last post has been an online haven for those looking to vent about personal woes and public policies.

“Doctor, we’ve made it through, we’re going to be free,” wrote one user. “Daylight is here,” wrote another.

Shanghai was among the first to announce that it would put the new home quarantine guidelines in place and also remove rules on travellers entering the city. The Shanghai Disneyland theme park will reopen for visitors on Thursday.

Some investors also welcomed the shift that could reinvigorate China’s sagging economy and currency and bolster global growth.

“This change of policy is a big step forward,” said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. “I expect China will fully reopen its border no later than mid 2023.”

Foreign businesses in China also hope the changes could mark a shift to a broader opening up.

“We need the business environment here to return to a level of predictability whereby companies can return to normal operations,” said Colm Rafferty, chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

But NHC spokesperson Mi Feng told reporters that any changes to measures regarding inbound travel would be “gradual”.

Protests and fear

The policy changes were announced after Xi, who sees China’s relentless fight against Covid as one of his main achievements, chaired a meeting of the Communist Party’s politburo on Tuesday.

Some analysts seized on official news agency Xinhua’s report on the meeting  not referring to the “dynamic zero-Covid” policy. It was not clear whether this was a signal of a fundamental change in stance.

Protests gripped big Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai in November, and started to subside in the face of a heavy police presence and restrictions being lifted in various regions. 

Officials have not linked any of the changes to the protests. But they markedly softened their tone on health risks of the virus, bringing China closer to what other countries have been saying for more than a year as they dropped restrictions and shifted towards living with the virus.

The looser approach has set off a rush for cough and fever medicines as some residents, particularly the unvaccinated elderly, feel more vulnerable to a virus kept in check largely by strict restrictions.

Feng Zijian, a former official in China’s Centre for Disease Control, told the China Youth Daily that up to 60% of China’s population could be infected in the first large-scale wave before stabilising. “Ultimately, about 80%-90% of people will be infected,” he said.

China’s tally of 5,235 Covid-related deaths is a tiny fraction of its population of 1.4-billion, and extremely low by global standards.

“Please buy [medicine] rationally, buy on demand, and do not blindly stock up,” the Beijing Municipal Food and Drug Administration was quoted as saying in the state-owned Beijing Evening News.

In Beijing’s upmarket Chaoyang district, home to most foreign embassies as well as entertainment venues and corporate headquarters, shops were fast running out of some those drugs, residents said.

China’s yuan has seen a resurgence against the dollar, buoyed by the prospects that the government would relax the curbs.

But the currency remains set for its worst year since China unified official and market exchange rates in 1994, as its economy has been battered.

Reuters