Why China Is Sticking With Its ‘Covid Zero’ Strategy

Two years ago, China was being lauded by the World Health Organization for its success in beating the coronavirus. But its insistence on adhering to a so-called Covid Zero policy is leaving it increasingly isolated as other countries that suffered far-worse outbreaks return to a semblance of pre-pandemic life. Their populations have built up a large degree of protection against serious illness -- and reduced the initial fear of the unknown -- through waves of infections and more-effective vaccines. Chinese officials have said shots alone can’t prevent infections and stringent curbs aimed at wiping out the virus are needed to avoid a health care calamity. President Xi Jinping has pledged to try to reduce the economic and social impact resulting from enforcing the strategy. But he has vowed to stick with it despite repeated flareups, including one that locked down the financial capital Shanghai for two months this year.

Ideally, but it’s not that simple. Beijing’s perception of Covid hasn’t changed much since the virus first emerged in late 2019 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan: It’s a public health threat that must be eliminated at all costs. That’s why China still requires isolation for patients and their close contacts, as well as quarantine for anyone arriving from abroad. Any outbreak domestically is met with a barrage of targeted testing, contact tracing and quarantines to try to nip it in the bud, with citywide lockdowns as a last resort. That approach, which has become known as “dynamic clearing,” acknowledges that infections occur but aims to stop onward transmission. More infectious variants have made it more difficult for China. In early April the daily case count topped 20,000 -- surpassing the opening days of the pandemic in China, when testing wasn’t readily available -- before falling back.