Effectiveness and transparency for health and the economy.

By Hélio Rocha

Published in China Radio International

Since the beginning of 2020, when the Covid-19 virus spread around the world, China, the first victim of the disease, has sought effective solutions to the problems arising from the need to close regions and cities in an attempt to contain the contamination. In a country where hygiene and the use of masks are already long-standing habits, the simple incorporation of individual measures may be insufficient. On the other hand, the adoption of long periods of social isolation and economic shutdown, in a nation with immense integration with other poor and emerging countries, can trigger a series of economic problems, given the importance that trade with China has acquired for half the world in recent decades.

Therefore, amidst the back-and-forth of lockdowns and reopenings, and to reassure the global community about the low risk of a shutdown of the Chinese economy, the central government published a document this December listing ten measures to provide transparency to its actions aimed at combating Covid-19. Among these, the delimitation of isolation areas stands out, using intelligence and public collaboration, for the rapid detection of the disease and neutralization of the virus's spread. With the rapid "lockdown and release," with the focus regions being released five days after the last case, people's socialization and the functioning of the economy are not harmed.

This, coupled with accelerated vaccination and mapping of key populations, could prove crucial to the health of the Chinese economy and, far beyond that, to the global economy. It must be considered that this is still an emerging economy, which, despite being the second largest in the world by annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), still has to deal with income distribution problems for a population of almost 1,4 billion people; therefore, this is a fundamental issue.

Since 2020, China has achieved favorable global figures regarding its economic response to pandemic control measures. It's worth remembering that during this period, the country eradicated absolute poverty and grew by an average of 5,1% (below its recent historical average, but above any other nation most affected by COVID-19), although with a strong rebound in the last year, of 8,1%. In total, more than 100 outbreaks of the disease were controlled in almost three years, and it had the lowest number of cases and deaths among the world's largest economies. The results appear even more consistent in 2022, with Chinese imports and exports growing by 9,9% in the first three quarters of this year.

However, more than Chinese prosperity itself, the way the country responded quickly to Covid-19 outbreaks is important for the whole world. More than half the planet now has priority ties with trade partnerships established with the Asian power, as it has become one of the main alternatives for poor and emerging countries seeking to escape the exclusivity imposed by the hegemony of Europe, the United States, and Japan after the Cold War. Today, it is impossible to compare the importance of anti-Covid measures in other countries with those in China, not only because of demographics and the domestic economy, but also because of China's global role. A crisis in industry, extraction, and the service sector in this country would cause disruption to the entire chain of other national economies.

Knowing how to reconcile human and economic interests as national goals with the needs of the international community, as in the case of China's response to Covid-19, is something that falls under the principles of the Chinese Communist Party, since it prioritizes the assimilation of the aspirations of the working class, with market needs being a tool for prosperity, and not the other way around. Therefore, as a representative body of workers in state power, it does not yield to corporate pressure for immediate economic dividends if this does not serve the working class of China and the world.

Furthermore, it is concerned with the country's international integration as a global partner of several nations that, until a few decades ago, had no one with whom to maintain solid and healthy economic relations, resigning themselves to being providers of raw materials and importers of value-added goods destined for a small elite. Today, several development projects in high-tech industry, agriculture and livestock, or infrastructure, in the so-called "third world" countries, depend on the health of the Chinese economy, to which the country responds with various "win-win" mutual collaboration initiatives that relieve two-thirds of the world economy.

With this in mind, effectiveness and transparency are the priority of the People's Republic of China in its plan to neutralize Covid-19. The integrity of the people, local well-being, and global prosperity are the guiding principles of the Communist Party of China's government actions regarding public health.