Zhou Xin is co-founder of Yicai Global; Chief Hong Kong correspondent for Shanghai TV; a business editor with CBN, and associate editor-in-chief of Caixin Media.
Shanghai Disneyland's regular fireworks show illuminated the world's largest theme park sky on Halloween evening.
Sadly, the theme park was closed as those beautiful fireworks burst into flame, creating colorful contortions in the night sky, because a woman, who had amused herself in the theme park the day before, tested positive for COVID-19. As a consequence, more than 30,000 visitors had to take on-site nucleic acid tests for the virus.
One official epidemic prevention expert hailed this as evidence of "humanity's calmness in the face of disasters and confidence in the future."
Unlike most Western countries, China adopted a strict COVID-zero policy since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in early 2021. The country put entire cities into lockdown, even when only one person was found infected, before running four or more rounds of nucleic acid tests until everyone was virus-free.
There is no doubt that China's strict management has worked. China not only became the world's first economy to recover but has seen its economy grow 9.8% in the first nine months of this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. This provides clear evidence that China was correct to pursue an extreme lockdown policy.
But the nation's COVID-19 elimination strategy has been challenged since the recent spread of the Delta and other variants of the virus. China has seen a rise in new local infections in more than 11 provinces and regions since last month, making it increasingly difficult and costly to stick to a zero COVID strategy. Nor has the government has shown any sign of abandoning this policy.
As the pandemic continues, people, including many Chinese intellectuals, are beginning to wonder whether there is a need to maintain this extremely strict policy. Even in a country that embraces collectivism, a free state of life is still an important public good that society must provide. Obviously, this public good is becoming ever more vulnerable.
China has invested significant resources in its huge population, with expenditure on national health exceeding 7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) last year. Yet it only had 2.9 general practitioners per 10,000 people last year, not the leading figure globally, per statistics from the National Health Commission. More importantly, there is still an imbalance in how medical resources are allocated across the country.
Beijing, for example, has 0.488 class-three hospitals per 10,000 persons. Class-three hospitals are the best according to China's rating standards, the highest nationwide. The capital also ranks first in the number of certified doctors per 1,000 persons with 4.92. It is home to the country's best hospitals, with six of the top 15 Chinese hospitals, as per Fudan University's 2019 China Hospital Ranking List.
Central China, as a whole, however, has only 2.41 certified doctors per 1,000 persons, including Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, where the COVID-19 outbreak was first detected.
A doctor takes care of a patient in a hospital in Wuhan in March 2020: Central China has only 2.41 certified doctors per 1,000 persons. © FeatureChina/AP This huge disparity in medical resources led to the strongest official resistance to the theory of living with COVID-19, as the medical system in most areas of China cannot deal with a concentrated outbreak of the virus. The only result of such a policy would be the paralysis of an entire region's medical system, which neither the central nor local governments can afford.
And it is not just the government that thinks this; even ordinary Chinese people can understand it. China's health system has been one of the most hotly discussed topics among its people over the past few decades.
Almost every patient can see that the nation's medical system is being overwhelmed by long queues at hospitals. People are more concerned about the collapse of the entire health care system due to rising infections than they are a loss of freedom.
This explains why visitors to Disneyland on Halloween evening were not upset or frustrated as they waited for nucleic acid tests. They were still able to enjoy the fireworks display with smiles on their faces.
By 8 a.m. Monday, the test results of 33,863 people who visited Shanghai Disneyland and Disneytown on Oct. 30 and 31 were negative. Shanghai Disneyland reopened Wednesday morning as excited visitors flocked to the theme park and fireworks once again illuminated the night sky.
The same good fortune was not afforded to a group of Beijing citizens who were stranded in other places on Halloween and banned from returning to the capital because of an outbreak in their temporary residence. The number of areas with individual cases increased to 16 nationwide.
Officials forbid its citizens to bring possible risks back to the capital and even canceled flights and trains between cities despite only sporadic outbreaks.
The irony is not lost on these trapped Beijingers, who know that in less than 100 days, the city will play host to the 2022 Winter Olympics. China's goal is to trump this year's summer Olympic Games held in Tokyo in every aspect, including pandemic prevention.
The Olympic Games' organizing committee, which favors a zero COVID policy, may not like the bubble prevention strategy, but now its people are resigned to the fact.