Fast, precise, too tough? Lockdowns risk stalling China’s economy

theguardian.com:

Veteran lorry driver Meng Hong has become an unlikely social media star in recent weeks. Since March, his short video talks about life on the road during Covid outbreaks on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, have won him millions of likes.

Most of Meng’s videos had been about “spreading positive energy” as he wrote in his account description. But on 13 April, he began to complain about what happened when drivers transported goods to Shanghai. “After we have delivered food, we were quarantined [after we left] or locked down in Shanghai,” he revealed in an animated video tirade.

As China’s most populous city entered a strict lockdown this month, local governments in neighbouring areas erected roadblocks and closed highways to curb potential spread of Omicron, leaving logistics chains woefully disrupted. “As long as you have had a trip to Shanghai, very few other cities would allow you to enter,” Meng complained. Drivers were now refusing to go there, he reported.

The post resonated across China and is a microcosm of the uncertainty the world’s second-largest economy is facing right now. The ruling party’s zero-Covid policy has so far resulted in at least 45 cities experiencing some form of lockdown, and Beijing shows no sign of changing course on its effort to eliminate the spread of the virus.

Last Sunday, inhabitants in the six urban districts in Wuhu, a city of 3.6 million in eastern Anhui province, woke up to a sudden lockdown after one student at a school tested positive the previous day. The officials say they operate on a three-word principle in tackling this kind of situation: fast, precise and tough.

But the unpredictable nature of such a practice has inevitably led to economic losses as lockdowns have affected 50%