The cost of China’s zero-Covid policy
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2022
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Millions of people have been locked down in China for weeks, as the country battles a surge in Omicron cases, with a zero-Covid policy.
We follow one young woman’s journey across the country as she tries to reach her home in central China amid layers of bureaucracy and travel restrictions.
We hear how the lockdown is causing some major disruptions to the Chinese economy from Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China Analyst at Capital Economics.
Businessman Kent Kedl, who works at a Shanghai based risk consultancy firm, tells us what business – and life – has been like in lockdown.
And US-based epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding explains the advantages and disadvantages of China's Covid policies.
Presenter/Producer: Vivienne Nunis Picture: Reuters (person sits behind barrier)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the BBC World Service with me, Vivian Nunes. |
| 0:06.0 | Today on Business Daily, we go to China where millions of people have spent weeks |
| 0:11.0 | locked down in their homes, thanks to Beijing's zero COVID policy. |
| 0:16.4 | In Shanghai, business has ground to a halt. |
| 0:20.0 | So what does it mean for the Chinese economy? |
| 0:22.8 | And there are companies that are just completely shut down and have been for weeks. They can't find |
| 0:27.6 | supply. They can't find customers. It's very, very frustrating. And we follow one woman's journey |
| 0:33.3 | as she tries to reach her home in central China amid layers of bureaucracy and travel restrictions. |
| 0:40.0 | I have spent most of my time here |
| 0:41.6 | playing hours and hours of video games on my phone |
| 0:44.5 | trying to numb myself. |
| 0:46.3 | It's easier to be distracted |
| 0:47.8 | and feel like I was going somewhere in the video game. |
| 0:51.2 | That's Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:01.6 | Wow! in the video game. That's Business Daily from the BBC. This is the sound of Shanghai residents screaming from their apartment buildings earlier this month. |
| 1:07.8 | The city of 26 million people has been locked down for weeks. |
| 1:11.7 | The narrator of this video says he's worried about the consequences of containing people |
| 1:19.2 | indefinitely. |
| 1:25.4 | Locking down Shanghai, China's booming financial capital is part of Beijing's dynamic |
| 1:33.4 | zero-COVID approach. The policy means authorities try to quickly find and contain |
| 1:39.1 | infected individuals, bringing outbreaks under control in the shortest possible time. |
| 1:44.9 | In Shanghai, that has meant aggressive testing and strict lockdowns with residents unable |
... |
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