132 Global News Post 1

China aims to wipe out Omicron ahead of Winter Olympics by Oiwan Lam

Barczyk, H. (2021). [Cartoon illustration of China’s zero-COVID strategy]. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/china/2021/11/12/china-will-stick-to-a-zero-covid-policy-for-now.

The article presents a brief history of China’s COVID-19 policies and an overview of recent travel restrictions imposed in preparation for the upcoming Winter Olympics held in Beijing. Since the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China has mostly contained the virus through imposing draconian lockdown measures. Although it has since eased travel restrictions within its borders, several cities have once again entered into lockdown due to the circulation of new COVID variants in China. These newly imposed restrictions have led to public outcries where citizens became frustrated by lockdown-induced food shortages and inadequate care for vulnerable populations. As the Omicron variant becomes more prevalent in China, it will likely be a serious threat to China’s zero-COVID strategy.

The author used tweets and news articles to provide evidence. Aside from trustworthy sources such as CNN, Global News, and reputable academics, the author also relied on personal accounts from Chinese citizens who experienced the lockdown. The only source that the author used that might contain bias is Radio Free Asia, a non-profit funded by the United States government.

The article helped us understand how the upcoming Winter Olympics could be problematic for China’s zero-COVID strategy. It shows how the Chinese government needs to balance calming public frustration regarding lockdown and containing the spread of COVID. However, it is crucial to acknowledge the potential shortcoming of the author’s viewpoint. These sources presented a mostly western-oriented view of how COVID impacted China. To have a more comprehensive understanding, it will be helpful to also provide the Chinese government’s narrative on this particular issue.