China refuses to ditch its zero-COVID policies despite rising frustration among its population for the effect of the protocols on people's livelihoods.
The policies have taken their toll on businesses and jobseekers as Beijing continues to stress time and again the need to maintain its strict protocols against the virus to protect lives. Since 2020, the Asian country has reported 5,226 fatalities related to the disease among its population of roughly 1.4 billion.
China's Zero-COVID Policies
In comparison, in the United States, more than 1 million people have died due to the coronavirus disease. However, keeping China's death toll low has come at a cost to its economy.
A 36-year-old resident, Cai Ju from Beijing, has already been forced to shut four of his five bars in Beijing and Chengdu in the last three years. Business was disrupted at first due to temporary closures to comply with COVID-19 policies. But now, almost no customer walks through the door of the businesses, as per Reuters.
Cai said that since the health crisis, he has become anxious, flustered, and lost, and noted that the bars started to close down one by one. In 2016, he quit his job as an architect at a state-owned enterprise to open his first establishment.
In order to offset the loss of profits from walk-in customers, Cai started to live stream music performances at his bar to people who were quarantined at home. For now, that side hustle would have to make do.
According to CNN, many of China's population have been placed under strict quarantine, with a young woman being isolated in her apartment building for half a year since returning from university in the summer. She stood on her balcony, cried out in desperation, and shouted at hazmat-wearing workers below.
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Strict Quarantine Protocols
Despite the majority of Asian economies, even those that previously had hardline zero-COVID stances, have abandoned pandemic-era restrictions, Chinese authorities maintain that the battle against the virus remains "winnable."
However, that claim comes even as infections rise and a new strain circulates just days before the country's most important political event, the Communist Party Congress beginning in Beijing on Sunday. At the event, President Xi Jinping is expected to reiterate his position as the country's most powerful leader in decades.
The situation comes as observers from around the world will be monitoring the twice-a-decade meeting for any signs of the party's priorities when it comes to its zero-COVID policies. The protocols have been blamed for exacerbating mounting problems in China's economy, from stalled growth to a collapsing housing market.
Tensions are even higher in China's capital, where photos posted online on Thursday appeared to show a rare public protest against President Xi. Demonstrators held signs saying, "Say no to COVID test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. Don't be a slave, be a citizen."
Health workers, desperate to isolate recent outbreaks, have started to barricade buildings and cordon off single individuals in public spaces. Currently, there are an estimated 200 million people still in some form of lockdown in the country, the New York Times reported.
