China is at a crossroads on how to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Credit: Andrii Makukha, Creative Commons
Covid-19 may have gotten its start in China, but the country seemed to be the first to contain it. Whether China can maintain that edge, though, is another question.
After months of successfully controlling the spread of Covid-19 in China, the virus has suddenly resurfaced in the northern part of the country — in Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, and even in Beijing, necessitating a complete lockdown in nearby Shijiazhuang. Given the ongoing success of Chinese quarantine policies, these outbreaks will likely come under control in the coming weeks. But as the rest of the world inoculates against Covid-19, China faces a difficult choice between launching a mandatory inoculation campaign and continuing its quarantine from the world. Both scenarios will lead to heightened risks of limited outbreaks in China for months or even years to come even as other major economies obtain herd immunity from vaccination.
It’s a surprising turnabout. For much of the past year, as the world
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
At first glance, the recent raid on Capvision, a Shanghai consultancy, looks similar to the raids on foreign firms Mintz Group and Bain & Company. But there are reasons to separate Beijing's crackdown on Capvision. For starters, Capvision is Chinese and its shareholders and investors include a network of remarkably high profile and state-connected individuals and companies.
