China: the consequences of the ‘zero COVID’ strategy
China: the consequences of the ‘zero COVID’ strategy

Author(s): Michał Bogusz
Subject(s): Government/Political systems, Security and defense, Political behavior, Health and medicine and law
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: China; Zero COVID strategy; SARS-CoV-2; politicisation of the fight against a pandemic;
Summary/Abstract: In the first half of 2020, it seemed that, with its ‘zero COVID’ strategy, China had outperformed many other countries in its efforts to contain the pandemic. Two years on, when COVID-19 is no longer a critical issue for most of the world, the pandemic situation in China, whose population has not acquired collective immunity, is becoming increasingly difficult. Furthermore, the economy is grappling with challenges that the rest of the world has largely moved on from and is facing new ones arising from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, the fight against coronavirus has become politicised and has largely become stripped of its health dimension. China is sinking deeper and deeper into self-isolation, which is beginning to have a negative impact on its international environment, and the continuation of its ‘zero COVID’ strategy is destabilising the global economic system by disrupting supply chains.

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