China's Covid nightmare: Can Beijing bounce back?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

China has this week reopened its borders for the first time in nearly three years. There have been scenes of joy and relief for many Chinese citizens after years of isolation.

Ed Butler asks whether this is a turning point, as some are describing. What are the longer term economic threats for the so-called engine of global growth? And how does that impact the rest of the world?

Ed speaks to two young Chinese professionals - one in Beijing and one in Shanghai, who are feeling a mixture of relief and concern about the current situation.

George Magnus is a research associate at Oxford University’s China Centre - he tells Ed that the current Covid infection wave could spread right across the country, to smaller cities and rural areas.

It's difficult to get the true economic picture of what's happening in China, but Shehzad Qazi, managing director of the China Beige Book, the biggest private data collection network on China, says growth turned negative last year, with demand crashing and factories forced to close down.

Presenter/producer: Ed Butler

(Photo: A woman at an airport in China after restrictions were lifted. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Transcript

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0:00.0	All episodes of My Indian Life seasons one to three are available to binge in full right now.
0:06.9	That's Kalki presents My Indian Life from the BBC World Service.
0:11.0	Just search for My Indian Life wherever you found this podcast.
0:15.8	Hi there, I'm Ed Butler.
0:17.5	Welcome to Business Daily here on the BBC World Service,
0:22.0	where today we're going to be looking at China, from zero COVID to total COVID, how a new outbreak of the virus is disrupting
0:29.2	the world's second largest economy. You see manufacturing growth, slow to a grind, consumption
0:35.0	take another hit, and you see the property market fall deeper into
0:38.8	contraction territory. All around, it's a total bloodbath. It's precisely three years this week
0:45.5	since China announced its first COVID fatality. How has the trauma and uncertainty of that time
0:52.5	affected young Chinese professionals are some still
0:56.6	planning to leave their homeland. I do have a lot of friends. They either already left or they're still
1:04.6	planning. For me, it's worse a shot to find other opportunities out of China.
1:16.0	China's COVID turmoil and what it means for the world here on Business Daily from the BBC.
1:26.5	Scenes of relief and joy at China's airports this week,
1:30.3	some who'd been effectively cut off from their loved ones for years by tough COVID restrictions, suddenly feeling the love.
1:34.3	I come back from England for Chinese New Year,
1:39.2	and it's been for three years.
1:41.5	That's too long.
1:43.0	I'm so happy to be back. And breathe Chinese air. So happy. So happy.
1:51.2	Yeah, I'm coming back this time because I want to celebrate Lunar New Year with my family.
1:55.7	It's such a big moment for me.
	...

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