Chinese Communist Party President Xi Jinping recently commented on the enforcement of the country’s zero covid strategy amid the ongoing spread of the virus, and a three-week lockdown the policy imposed on Shanghai that has only recently begun to soften. The leader voiced his intention to double down on the matter as growth projections for Chinese GDP begin declining as a result of the lockdowns, Chinese media outlets report.
“The message to Shanghai and everyone else is clear – suck it up for the good of the country, the policy is not going to change in any fundamental way, and we are going to grind through the pandemic and anything or person that gets in the way,” China analyst/expert Bill Bishop said in his newsletter.
Jinping’s concern derives from recent spikes in COVID-19 infections. According to CCTV, the official “pointed out that the current global pandemic is still very serious, so we can not relax the prevention and control work. Persistence is victory. Adhere to people above all else, life above all else, adhere to the prevention of imported cases, a rebound of domestic cases, adhere to scientific precision, dynamic zero-COVID, grasp the details of the epidemic prevention and control initiatives.”
The report goes on to warn that “We need to overcome paralysis, war-weariness, 'get lucky' mentality and complacency. In response to the new features of the virus' mutation, we need to improve our capabilities in scientific and precise prevention and control, improve various contingency plans and strictly implement regular prevention and control measures to minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development."
According to a poll conducted by Reuters, China’s growth projections stand at 5.0 this year, suggesting a decline from the previous estimate of 5.2%. The figure proves the lockdowns to be the culprit of the country’s delayed economic growth.
The declines have stimulated uncertainty among the 25 million citizens inhabiting Shanghai, and the treatment of citizens as well as economic and supply chain impacts brought on by the lockdowns, with ongoing lockdowns only further diminishing their hope, State Newswire reported.
"March activity data is likely to have seen a notable deterioration, but that would just be the tip of the iceberg as the economically damaging lockdowns only started in mid-March," analysts at Societe Generale said in a note.