Tourists lined up to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing on Sunday.Credit...Andy Wong/Associated Press
China’s approach to keep Covid-19 at bay has helped restore confidence and allowed businesses to reopen. But it is a strategy steeped in authoritarianism.
The United States is hitting records in daily coronavirus cases. But China, the country first afflicted with the scourge, is having a different experience.
Unlike the Trump administration, which has said it is prioritizing opening the economy while essentially giving up on controlling the pandemic, China moved aggressively to stop the virus. The result: China’s economy is growing and life there is returning to a semblance of normal, while the United States is struggling with a third wave of infections and the prospect of new restrictions.
Economic growth in China has surged, hitting 4.9 percent in the latest quarter, and consumer spending has slowly started to recover. Residents are once again flocking into malls, bars, concert halls and hair salons, while schools, subways and offices are crowded.
China has effectively sealed off its borders from the outside world and doubled down on efforts to eradicate the virus. When a crop of cases emerge, the government swiftly shuts down vast areas and quickly tests millions of people, to help keep local transmissions near zero.
China’s authoritarian government has the ability to act in a way that democracies that must be accountable to the public cannot. But it has demonstrated that the way to open the economy is to first safeguard public health.
While Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, has said the United States is “not going to control the pandemic” but will focus on getting vaccines and therapeutic treatments to combat the disease, China’s approach has helped to restore confidence and allow businesses to reopen.
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WNU Editor: The New York Times likes to believe that China is controlling the coronavirus. That what Beijing is saying is the truth. It is not. Everyone I know in China is telling me the same thing. Restrictions are the rule and not the exception. Outbreaks do occur regularly, and when they are spotted severe measures are imposed immediately. Everyone is on edge, and everyone is expecting another major wave. If not now, later. And no one has confidence that Beijing's strategy will work in the end.
