With over five million citizens of Shanghai being cooped up indefinitely either in homes or in quarantine facilities, the world is wondering: is it that China’s iconic zero-covid strategy has misfired or there are extenuating circumstances? Are the Chinese learning the hard way that zero-covid is a public health dud in the long run although a blessing in the short term? Is this an inflection point for the one and only country that won’t budge an inch on its covid policy?
Western coverage of the humiliation in Shanghai shows that the democratic camp is still entertaining hopes of leveling the covid playing field with China by talking it into opening up anyway regardless of a mere dozen cases being on the loose. It is exactly the pandering to this Western style that caused China’s largest outbreak since the original one in Wuhan. If China Dragon is to exorcise the recurring viral demon from his territory, he must exorcise first that latent and tantalizing idea of allowing the virus to just sweep, rip, and tear through.
For Europeans, the collective sense of security and satisfaction is attainable by way of continuing division, or “calculus”. That’s why the vicissitudes of European history have rendered the continent comprised of larger “economies” but smaller “polities”. The Chinese people, however, favors centralization and unity, which leads to the ebb and flow of successive dynasties, each seeming to have consulted an invariable screenplay: starting as a regional power then annexing its neighbors to become a superpower. Covid brings about dissidence as well as distance, thereby threatening integrity and unity. Whereas Europeans can thrive on disengagement and independence, Chinese people won’t even survive. The fate of Shanghai would surely befall other cities if the Chinese authorities were to flip-flop on this very pivotal issue that will largely determine its post-pandemic strength and status. (In an attempt to prevent the latest Omicron outbreak from developing into a painful ordeal experienced by Shanghaiers, the Beijing municipal government has prevailed on all the citizens to take PCR tests on a daily basis for an indefinite period of time.)