Official defends China’s tough zero-Covid policy as showing ‘superiority’ of political system

A Chinese official on Thursday defended the country’s strict?zero-Covid controls, saying they showed the political system’s “superiority”, amid calls for the policy to be adjusted.

“Our pandemic control measures are relatively low-cost and effective,” said Guo Weimin, spokesman for the country’s top political advisory body the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

“This has actualised the people-based political ideology and the superiority of our nation’s socialist system.”

Guo made the remarks at a news conference ahead of the “two sessions” – the country’s biggest annual political meetings, which begin in Beijing on Friday.

He had been asked if the tough?Covid-19?strategy may need to be adjusted to reduce rising economic costs and disruptions to global exchanges.

Guo said new waves of the pandemic in “some developed countries” had seen a high number of severe cases and fatalities and health care systems had been overwhelmed.

“If China didn’t take these necessary, effective measures the outcome would be unimaginable for a nation of 1.4 billion,” he said.

Guo also hit out at international criticism that China’s zero-Covid policy is disrupting global supply chains.

“This is wrong. It is exactly because China has adopted a correct pandemic prevention strategy that economic growth can be restored and therefore the stability of global manufacturing and supply chains is ensured,” Guo said.

China’s aggressive pandemic strategy has kept cases and deaths relatively low, stamping out any outbreaks with measures such as compulsory mass testing, strict citywide lockdowns and travel curbs.

But there have been signs that Beijing could answer growing calls to ease the zero-tolerance approach that has taken a heavy economic and social toll.

Earlier this week, Zeng Guang, former chief scientist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and a senior adviser to Beijing on coronavirus control, posted on his personal social media account that the strategy was “for a specific period of epidemic prevention and will not remain unchanged forever”.

That followed a remark by China CDC chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyou last month that researchers were “actively thinking of and planning”?new ways to improve the policy?in the near future.

Wu said they would be different from the current Covid-19 control strategy – which Beijing calls “dynamic clearing” – and would allow China to better interact with the international community and protect its own economic development.

On Thursday, CPPCC spokesman Guo sought to ease concerns on the economy, saying that China’s foreign trade volume had reached a new high of US$6 trillion last year despite the uncertain international environment.

Source: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3169148/official-defends-chinas-tough-zero-covid-policy-showing