Can China preserve both its economy and its zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy?
TAIPEI, Taiwan — China's zero-COVID strategy is starting to derail another major item on the government's agenda: economic stability. In the last month, sweeping lockdowns across the country have crimped manufacturing. Stay-at-home orders have stunted consumer spending. The closures are also compounding supply chain issues that have boosted inflation and weighed on global growth. "No part of ...
TAIPEI, Taiwan — China's zero-COVID strategy is starting to derail another major item on the government's agenda: economic stability.
In the last month, sweeping lockdowns across the country have crimped manufacturing. Stay-at-home orders have stunted consumer spending. The closures are also compounding supply chain issues that have boosted inflation and weighed on global growth.
"No part of China's economy is untouched by the tightening of zero-COVID policies," Craig Botham, chief China economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in a research report to clients this week.
The costs of prioritizing the pandemic over all else are creating a dilemma for President Xi Jinping as he prepares to assume later this year.
