welcome to foreign policyChinese briefs.
Highlights of the Week: China’s COVID-19 crisis As China reaches rural areas as the new year begins, Beijing appoints its former ambassador to the United States as follows: Minister of Foreign AffairsWhen new president of brazil judge China.
If you’d like to receive an overview of China in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
welcome to foreign policyChinese briefs.
Highlights of the Week: China’s COVID-19 crisis As China reaches rural areas as the new year begins, Beijing appoints its former ambassador to the United States as follows: Minister of Foreign AffairsWhen new president of brazil judge China.
If you’d like to receive an overview of China in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
China’s COVID-19 crisis deepens
It’s another new year in China and another round of the country’s COVID-19 crisis as the virus continues to spread beyond major cities. Chinese President Xi Jinping directly acknowledged the outbreak in his December 31 New Year’s address.
Xi’s statement was sandwiched between allegations about the heroic struggle, but it’s a rare nod to reality when the gap between suffering on the ground and the tone of the state media appears wider than ever. showed. Hospitals are overwhelmed in many places. According to plausible estimates, he kills 9,000 people a day in China. In the northeast of the country, a friend reported, ‘Have you ever had the virus? It has replaced the traditional greeting of “Have you eaten?”
China has stopped publishing accurate COVID-19 data. Even the World Health Organization (WHO), which has taken a lenient approach to China’s lack of transparency, called Directly announced by the Chinese government. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said as many countries, including the United States and Australia, demand new tests for Chinese travelers. Said These policies were “understandable” in the “lack of comprehensive information” from China.
Experts fear new strains will emerge from the outbreak in China. Data from the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so far show no signs of that, but the WHO is asking for more information. Meanwhile, misinformation about the virus is circulating within China, ranging from government claims that traditional Chinese medicine products can be used for treatment to full-blown conspiracy theories.
The worst of the first wave appears to have peaked in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, where life has temporarily returned to the streets. Villages report high death tolls and flooded hospitals where staff work even when sick.
Several factors could make COVID-19 even more devastating in rural China. Medical services in rural areas are inadequate even in normal times, the number of critical care beds per person is less than half that in urban areas, and there is a serious labor shortage. Officially, the rural population is young on average, but in reality young people are leaving for the cities in search of work and villages are full of old and very young people.
Despite repeated pressure, the elderly in China are under-vaccinated. They also have a much higher risk of dying from COVID-19.
The Chinese New Year, or Chinese New Year, on January 22 could exacerbate the rural crisis. The so-called spring migration begins about two weeks before the holidays, when migrant workers return to their native villages to collect their wages and celebrate with their families. This could further accelerate his transmission of COVID-19 in rural areas.
Since the 2020 epidemic broke out just before the Chinese New Year, many migrant workers have been unable to return home for three years, and with the government downplaying the virus, people deserve to spend time together. You are likely to believe that
This wave will also delay hopes for a local economic recovery. On December 24, President Xi Jinping once again called on young people to revitalize rural areas, but that is highly unlikely. Rural areas have little to offer young people culturally or economically. During the secondment era of university graduates, which lasted until the 1990s, the government was able to send people to remote areas as teachers, nurses and doctors. But even with record youth unemployment, especially with his COVID-19 prevalence, many people are unlikely to be drawn to rural China.
Beijing’s new foreign minister. Qin Gang, who has been China’s ambassador to the United States for about 18 months, has been appointed foreign minister after weeks of anticipation. In a country that always prioritizes domestic affairs, the foreign minister is in a surprisingly weak position. Like others who were promoted at last October’s party convention and in the months that followed, Mr. Qin is an ally of Xi Jinping with little influence of his own.
But in a tweet on Tuesday, Qin’s statement that he was “deeply impressed” by the American people came after Xi met with U.S. President Joe Biden at the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, last November. It is a sign of attempted warming between China and the United States since then. But while China continues to carry out anti-American propaganda at home and the leadership retains so-called wolf-warrior diplomats in their positions, Washington is convinced that Beijing is its main enemy.
Still, it’s a good sign that both sides of the new Cold War are ready to have a polite dialogue with each other.
Lula goes to court in China. Brazil’s President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, newly elected for a second time, continues his pro-China approach on foreign affairs. He put Beijing high on his first overseas travel agenda and received a warm welcome from President Xi. Despite his anti-communist rhetoric, Lula’s predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, also looked to Beijing in diplomatic isolation as a result of his far-right policies. Lula seems to be trying to revive the spirit of Cold War-era non-alignment and cut Brazil off from the emerging geopolitical bloc.
A prominent COVID-19 death? The reluctance of Chinese authorities to acknowledge the number of deaths from COVID-19 (the official figure has been 12 since the zero-COVID policy ended on December 7) means that celebrities, especially the elderly, are unidentified. has led to a flurry of speculation that he will die from the disease. In some cases, family members have confirmed online that a relative died of her COVID-19. Thanks to the chasm between apparent losses and official figures, the credibility that governments built through their initial successes in zero COVID is now gone.
At some point, Beijing may change course to restore some confidence, perhaps by partially acknowledging the scale of the deaths after the worst of the crisis has passed. I suspect they don’t know how to deal with sudden changes without becoming overwhelmed or appearing inconsistent.
This week’s most read FP
• Why Germany Learned the Wrong Lesson from History Edward Lucas
• 10 conflicts to watch in 2023 Comfort Elo and Richard Atwood
• 5 reasons the US-China Cold War is different from the last Joe Inge Beckewold
Bad economic data is piling up. China’s manufacturing activity fell for the fifth straight month in December, adding to a dismal array of economic indicators from labor to spending. The photo appears to have played a key role in persuading Xi to end his COVID-zero policy, despite his suggestion in his New Year’s speech that the economy grew by 4.4% in 2022. is also questioning. The spending period becomes an important test of consumer confidence.
After three years without COVID-19, there’s no question that demand is building up for everything from spas to restaurants. I don’t expect to see much growth until this first wave subsides, but consumers will still be risk averse. A restructuring of savings is more likely than a full-blown boom.
Canada prohibits foreign property buyers. Last Sunday, a two-year ban on most foreigners from acquiring property came into force in Canada, with the exception of refugees and students. . China is blamed for boosting home prices in cities such as Vancouver, where Chinese made up a third of her new property buyers.
A high-profile report directed at the luxurious home of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who was out on bail in China, has given the issue special attention. If Canada’s measures are successful, other countries such as Australia and the UK, which have high Chinese real estate investments and growing mistrust of Beijing, could do the same.
