“China battles to contain Omicron outbreaks”, 25 March 2022, Peter Symonds, WSWS, at < https://www.wsws.org/en/
And
“China continues offensive against the spread of Omicron BA.2 subvariant”, 21 March 2022, Bryan Dyne, WSWS, at < https://www.wsws.org/en/
And
“China mounts all-out effort to stop the spread of Omicron BA.2 subvariant”, “Perspective”, 15 March 2022, Evan Blake, WSWS, at < https://www.wsws.org/en/
~~ posted for dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista:
The WSWS has posted the most comprehensive set of political analysis articles examining the Covid Pandemic that I know of. We are posting 3 relatively recent WSWS articles about the Covid Pandemic in China, they present a very different point of view than that which is constantly expressed in the Corporate Controlled Media. These 3 articles are not overlong, they range from 1,200 words to 1,500 words so they are not taxing to read. The U.S. and the West in general are full of commenters who are very critical of everything China does, including its outstanding response to the Covid Pandemic. The real motivation for criticizing China, for the ruling class Capitalist powers, and their operatives and propaganda and disinformation outlets in the West; is that their profits are greatly reduced when Chinese factories shut down to protect the domestic population of China from Covid. The rulers in China are motivated to protect the interests of the great mass of the population, as opposed to protecting the interests of their Capitalist and upper middle class professional classes; that protection of the upper classes being poltical norm in the U.S. and the rest of the West. China has a long tradition of ruling by the “Mandate of Heaven”, and it does not matter whether the rulers are sincere in their concern for the needs of the great majority of the population or are merey acting by expedience. The Chinese rulers have consistently chosen to make decisions that have kept the numbers of cases and the numbers of deaths at levels that are not even conceivable in the “live with the virus” regimes in the West. A lot is also made by right wing anti-Chinese commentators and writers that Hong Kong had a major outbreak of the Omicron variants.
In the “China continues offensive against ...” article Bryan Dyne points out that for Mainland China:
“For the past three weeks, .... official data from the National Health Commission .... show fewer than 35,000 cases and only 2 deaths.
“Over those same three weeks in Hong Kong, there have been 830,000 recorded cases and at least 5,200 deaths. ...
“The sharp contrast between coronavirus cases and deaths in Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as between China and the rest of the world, is a demonstration of the deadly differences between a policy of 'living with COVID-19' and fighting for a 'Zero-COVID' policy.”
Thus the WSWS pointed out that Hong Kong, that has adopted some policies more like those followed in the West had a semi-disastrous outbreak of the Omicron variants, while Mainland China has seen nothing of the kind as they continue to pursue the Zero Covid policy. This protects the beloved and respected elders among the working class people, the older working class people have been callously dumped and abandoned by the American and other Western rulers.
China battles to contain Omicron outbreaks
The current spread of COVID-19 cases in China is continuing, driven by the highly infectious Omicron strain and even more contagious BA.2 variant of Omicron. The public health measures taken by Chinese authorities appear to have largely contained multiple outbreaks in major cities over the past three weeks, with the national total of daily infections running at around 4,000 and 5,000. These are by far the highest figures since the initial COVID outbreak in the city of Wuhan in 2020 was suppressed.
The latest report from China’s National Health Commission recorded 1,366 new cases of confirmed infections and another 3,622 new asymptomatic cases on March 24 nationally. While the focus of attention has been on a major outbreak in the northeastern province of Jilin, the latest concerns are with Shanghai, which by some estimates is China’s largest city, and a major manufacturing and financial centre.
According to the National Health Commission, Shanghai identified only 27 new symptomatic cases on March 24 but a large number of asymptomatic cases—1,582—across a number of the city’s districts, the highest being 489 in Minhang district. Two weeks ago, the total number of cases in Shanghai was less than 100. As in other cities where outbreaks have occurred, authorities have rapidly instituted mass testing, contact tracing and the isolation and treatment of confirmed cases, as well as the lockdown of neighbourhoods most at risk.
The US and international media are responding to the latest surge in China with a deluge of propaganda aimed at blackening Beijing’s dynamic zero-COVID measures and pressing for China to adopt the criminal “let it rip” policy that has led to a million deaths in the United States alone.
An article published yesterday by the British-based Guardian entitled “Frustration with COVID response grows in China as daily cases near 5,000” was typical. It drew together a series of disparate complaints and criticisms expressed on Chinese social media—from concerns over access to food and other essentials and frustration over testing, to a trending topic on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter entitled, “Why can’t China lift safety measure just like foreign countries?”
The Guardian failed to make the obvious distinction between criticisms over deficiencies in the overall zero-COVID policy, which is overwhelmingly supported by the population, and those who are pushing for its complete overturn—a relatively small social layer of sections of business and the upper-middle class.The article highlighted the death of a nurse who attempted to gain treatment for acute asthma, claiming that she had gone from hospital to hospital only to be turned away. In fact, the tragedy occurred when the nurse went to the hospital where she worked, only to find that the emergency department was closed for disinfection due to the pandemic. She was taken to a nearby hospital and later died.
The central focus of Western media coverage, alongside adding another prong to the demonisation of China, is an underlying concern about the economic impact of pandemic lockdowns on global supply chains and the global economy more broadly. As the world’s largest manufacturer and second largest economy, China not only produces goods for many of the world’s largest corporations but its economic growth is a significant driver for global economic growth.
CNN for instance last week cited estimates by Goldman Sachs analysts that a four-week lockdown of 30 percent of China could reduce its gross domestic product (GDP) by around 1 percentage point. It also referred to Nomura analysts who predicted that the zero-COVID strategy would make it hard for Beijing to achieve its 5.5 percent growth target for 2022. Lower growth in China would only contribute to the economic turmoil produced by the pandemic globally, now compounded by supply chain disruptions caused by the escalating war in Ukraine.
The Chinese Communist Party leadership (CCP) has adhered to its zero-COVID policy for more than two years—successfully suppressing the initial Wuhan outbreak and subsequent outbreaks, which have all been associated with infections that have entered from outside China, including the latest Omicron variants. The strategy stems in large measure from widespread popular support rooted in the sentiment arising from the 1949 Chinese revolution that people’s social needs should take priority. The CCP, which has presided over four decades of capitalist restoration, is deeply fearful of any social opposition and continues to promote itself as the defender of people’s welfare.
The CCP regime, however, is undoubtedly under considerable pressure to dispense with its zero-COVID policy not only from the Western media, global investors and corporations, but from powerful sections of business within China, as well as upper-middle class layers who regard public health restrictions as an intolerable imposition on their lifestyles.
Chinese President Xi Jinping gave the first indication that the government could shift its policy when he reportedly told a meeting of the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee that China must “strive to achieve the maximum prevention and control at the least cost, and minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development.” The committee is China’s top decision-making body.
While deliberately vague and ambiguous, Xi’s comments appear to have opened up a broader public debate among the country’s health experts, including in Shanghai. Unlike other cities previously hit by significant COVID outbreaks, Shanghai has not implemented a city-wide lockdown at this stage, even though infection numbers continue to climb.
Wu Fan, a member of the Shanghai government expert panel on COVID-19, is cited on a South China Morning Post twitter video as saying on March 20 that the city did not have the luxury of imposing a full lockdown. “Shanghai is irreplaceable to China’s economy… If the whole city stood still for a week or 10 days, it could be beneficial to curbing the pandemic. But the loss would be unbearable for small businesses and ordinary people,” he stated.
On Tuesday, the chief government epidemiologist Liang Wannian insisted China must “not waver” and stick to its plan, while waiting for a range of things to happen: outbreaks to ease overseas, the virus to mutate to become less dangerous, and better treatments and vaccines to become available.
In a Weibo post on Thursday, Shanghai epidemiologist Zhang Wenhong said maintaining a normal life should be stressed as much as the “dynamic zero-COVID” policy. He called on authorities to ensure people’s livelihoods, alleviate the pressures on hospitals and protect private businesses while fighting the COVID outbreak.
“These problems exist and we should not avoid them,” Zhang said. “In the future fight against the epidemic, we must solve these problems one by one. Otherwise, success against the outbreak will mean less.” Zhang last year came under fire for comments hinting that China needed a long-term strategy for coping with the pandemic.
The public discussion in China, however, is a far cry from the homicidal “herd immunity” policy adopted by governments around the world. Commenting last week on the huge COVID surge in Hong Kong where public health restrictions have been eased, Zhang declared that an opening up approach would be disastrous for China. He called for a “moderate and sustainable” lasting strategy once the current outbreaks have been contained.
The Western media commentary is pressing China to adopt the “live with the virus” policy that conservative estimates suggest would mean the death of over a million Chinese citizens this year alone. While media pundits speculate on why China has not adopted such a policy, the real question is why governments around the world have not learnt from the methods successfully employed in China to suppress the pandemic. Putting profits ahead of lives has led to the preventable death of millions and the emergence of more infectious and dangerous variants that now threaten an even greater catastrophe.
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China continues offensive against the spread of Omicron BA.2 subvariant
For the past three weeks, mainland China has been attempting to suppress an outbreak of coronavirus subvariant Omicron BA.2 that is concentrated in Jilin province, but has spread to much of the country. During that time, the official data from the National Health Commission (including both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases originating inside the country) show fewer than 35,000 cases and only 2 deaths.
Over those same three weeks in Hong Kong, there have been 830,000 recorded cases and at least 5,200 deaths. Worldwide, there were just under 33.5 million cases and more than 127,000 deaths.
The sharp contrast between coronavirus cases and deaths in Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as between China and the rest of the world, is a demonstration of the deadly differences between a policy of “living with COVID-19” and fighting for a “Zero-COVID” policy.
The outbreaks in China remain centered in Jilin, located in the northeastern part of the country, including 1,494 new cases yesterday. Residents of the province have undergone several rounds of mass testing, those found to be infected are isolated under medical supervision, and lockdowns of schools and nonessential businesses for an estimated 51 million people have been imposed to curb the spread of the virus.
Chinese officials have mobilized an immense amount of resources to contain the outbreak, treating as a major emergency figures that would be hailed as “progress” in any American state. In a press conference Thursday, Wang Hesheng, Deputy Director of the National Health Commission, noted that “the national overall testing capacity has exceeded 40 million … per day.”
Hesheng continued, “The epidemic in Hong Kong has taught us a particularly profound lesson, and it is also an example that if the vaccination rate of the elderly is low, the mortality rate of severe cases will be high.” One of the further responses to the current outbreak in China is a renewed drive to vaccinate the elderly, particularly in rural areas where vaccination rates are relatively low.He also stated that, “China’s anti-epidemic practice shows that adhering to ‘dynamic zero clearance’ is the epidemic defense line that our country with a population of more than 1.4 billion must currently defend, which is the best practice of the concept of people first and life first, and also the greatest contribution to the international fight against the [pandemic].”
The ability to maintain such a policy, however, has been challenged above all by the continued circulation of the coronavirus and emerging variants around the globe, including Omicron. In the weeks leading up to the current wave, often half or more of cases detected in a given day were imported from outside the country, the highest proportion since the start of the pandemic.
According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), during the ongoing wave of infections from Omicron, first its BA.1 subvariant and increasingly BA.2, an estimated more than 2 billion people have been infected worldwide since last November. In effect, the virus has had over 2 billion opportunities to mutate and evolve into an even more transmissible and deadly variant, which could emerge at any point.
China also faces growing pressure to abandon its Zero-COVID policy by Western policymakers and the corporate media. The New York Times complained that “lockdowns could wipe out the already razor-thin profits of many factories.” In an attempt to overcome these economic losses, Reuters reports that companies such as Apple supplier Foxconn and Tesla are forcing workers to eat, sleep and work on site in order to maintain production quotas.
Much was also made about the two deaths that were reported on Saturday, while the fact that these were the first two deaths reported from the pandemic in almost two years was only noted in passing. In contrast, the total number of deaths on a given day in just the United States alone, which was more than 1,000 a day less than a week ago, is not mentioned at all in the American media.
A March 11 report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, makes clear the immense danger of the reopening of China being called for from outside the country. The study focused on models developed using data collected from Guangdong province in 2011 and measured the impact of removing non-pharmaceutical interventions (testing, isolation, lockdowns) from efforts to contain the virus. In the “coexistence” scenario reported, the same as what exists outside China, the study notes that there could be an estimated 12.9 million cases and 121,000 deaths in Guangdong alone in just one year.
Extrapolated to the rest of China, the findings of the study indicate that the scrapping of Zero COVID could cause roughly 1.35 million deaths from COVID-19 in the rest of 2022 alone. In other words, the call by the Times and its ilk to protect profits is in reality a call for the mass infection and death of the Chinese population.
Alongside demanding such a slaughter, Western media outlets have essentially stopped reporting coronavirus cases and deaths in their own countries. The coronavirus tracker of the Times and the Guardian are both “below the fold” while that of the Washington Post has been reduced to a link. Last week the Times cut back its newsletter to subscribers of updates on the pandemic from once a day to every other day, supposedly because this coverage had become less urgent. Headlines are instead dominated by hypocritical denunciations of the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine.
No mention is made of the daily death toll in the United States, frequently over 1,000, or the more than 5,000 dying each day worldwide. If the virus is mentioned at all, it is to claim that the current wave is over and that even basic protections such as masks should be permanently done away with.
The spread of BA.2, however, is already reversing the decline in case numbers in country after country. The more transmissible subvariant of Omicron has already spread across most of the world and has become or will become soon the dominant variant of the virus where it exists. The United States CDC reports that BA.2 already comprises at least 38 percent of current cases in the Northeast and roughly 23.1 percent of cases across the country. The percentage of cases that are determined to be BA.2 has been doubling every week for the past four weeks.
A similar trend was witnessed in the weeks before the surge of the Omicron variant. In response, the Biden administration worked diligently to dismantle the last vestiges of coronavirus mitigation measures, including closing down testing stations, obscuring COVID-19 death reporting and promoting the delusions that masks are largely unnecessary and that schools can be reopened safely. In just four months, an estimated 200,000 people have died, including hundreds of children.
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China mounts all-out effort to stop the spread of Omicron BA.2 subvariant
Over the past week, COVID-19 infections have reached record levels in China due to the penetration of the highly infectious and immune-resistant Omicron BA.2 subvariant, which has evolved as a result of the refusal by nearly every government to stop the pandemic. Backed by popular support for the “dynamic zero” policy that aims to continuously keep COVID-19 infections at zero, the Chinese government is mobilizing vast resources to quell the outbreak and save lives.
China’s National Health Commission reported 5,154 new COVID-19 cases Monday, of which 1,647 were asymptomatic. From March 1-14, over 15,000 domestically transmitted cases have been identified, affecting 28 provincial-level regions. The surge of infections began in early March in multiple provinces. It is centered in Jilin province in the northeast, where over 90 percent of all cases in the current outbreak have been identified.
On March 6, a day when 526 new cases were reported, officials deemed the situation “severe” and urged residents to use caution. On Monday, when Jilin reported 4,067 new cases, local officials warned that the situation remains “severe and complicated,” while vowing to stop transmission within a week if possible.
China is deploying nearly every available public health measure, including mass testing, contact tracing, the safe isolation of all infected patients and the quarantining of those who came into contact with infected patients. Over 88 percent of the country’s population has received two doses of vaccine, the sixth highest rate in the world, and the government has ample supplies of monoclonal antibodies and other treatments.
As took place in January 2020 in response to the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, within days of this month’s outbreak five makeshift hospitals were built in Changchun and Jilin, with a combined capacity of 22,880 beds. A 6,000-bed isolation center will be constructed by the end of this week. In addition, five provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have sent medical teams and resources to Jilin.
Hundreds of millions of COVID-19 tests will be administered throughout the country in the coming weeks. In the southeastern metropolis Shenzhen, each of the 17.6 million residents will be tested three times this week. In Jilin, 12 million at-home rapid antigen tests are being distributed to residents, all of whom will also be given multiple PCR tests.
Every symptomatic COVID-19 patient will receive hospital care, while those with asymptomatic infections will stay at safe isolation centers. All close contacts will quarantine and test themselves daily at home for five days in addition to having regular PCR tests.
Most critically, the government has implemented partial or complete lockdowns in each city where infections are highest, including all of Jilin province, as well as the metropolises of Shenzhen, Langfang, Dongguan, Shanghai, Xian and other small- to medium-size cities. It is estimated that more than 50 million people are under strict stay-at-home orders and nearly 40 million more are under partial lockdown.
These lockdowns, decried by the corporate media because they pause the production of profits, entail the temporary closure of nonessential workplaces and schools to stem viral transmission as quickly as possible. In Jilin and other cities, only essential workplaces remain open, including supermarkets, pharmacies, water, gas, sanitation and communications companies, and suppliers of essential goods.
Most of the Chinese population supports these necessary public health measures to stop the spread of COVID-19. The initial lockdowns of January-March 2020 were highly chaotic due to the novelty of the situation, but nearly two years after the end of the lockdown of Wuhan, the process has become more streamlined and widely accepted.
A forecasting model run by Lanzhou University in China’s northwest predicts that if all these measures are maintained, the outbreak will be fully contained by early April after an estimated 35,000 people test positive for the disease. So far, no one has died in the latest outbreak. China has recorded only two COVID-19 deaths since May 16, 2020, compared to nearly 20 million excess deaths attributable to the pandemic outside of China over the past two years.
The aggressive pursuit of Zero-COVID on mainland China is influenced by the disastrous response of the local government in Hong Kong, a city and special administrative region of China, which has refused to implement lockdowns since BA.2 caused a major surge of infections and hospitalizations in mid-February. Daily death rates have skyrocketed and currently stand at a world record 37.68 per million people, in large part due to low vaccination rates among the elderly. While China’s elderly population is slightly more vaccinated, roughly half of those above 80 years old are unvaccinated.
It remains to be seen whether China will successfully eliminate the virus once again, but the rapid and comprehensive response indicates that this will likely happen despite the uniquely dangerous characteristics of the BA.2 subvariant. If successful, this would again prove that the massive spread of disease and death beyond the borders of China was not inevitable.
The very fact that China has had to repeatedly eliminate the virus and faces the constant threat of the reintroduction of COVID-19 from abroad testifies to the criminal character of the response to the pandemic in the advanced capitalist countries, above all in the United States and the European Union.
By refusing to implement the elimination strategy pioneered in China and replicated by many other Asia-Pacific countries in 2020, the capitalist elites and their political representatives are responsible for the mutation of SARS-CoV-2 into ever more infectious and immune-evading variants, from Alpha to Omicron and whatever comes next. Their promotion of vaccine nationalism and upholding of intellectual property rights have left 86 percent of people in low-income countries totally unvaccinated.
Since the start of the Omicron surge in late November, nearly every country outside of China has surrendered to the pandemic and lifted all mitigation measures to slow the spread of the virus. Testing, contact tracing, data collection and reporting, isolation guidelines, and even the most basic masking protocols have all been curtailed. Falsely claiming that COVID-19 is now “endemic,” the ruling elites are enforcing a brutal “new normal” of unending mass infection, long-term debilitation and death.
As a result, cases are rising exponentially across Europe, including in Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and other countries, with hospitalizations again rising in the UK.
In the United States, BNO News reported 52,694 official new cases and 1,478 new deaths Monday, nearly one half of China’s cumulative cases and one third of China’s cumulative deaths since the start of the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quietly noted that BA.2 now accounts for 23.1 percent of all sequenced infections, a percentage that is nearly doubling each week. Wastewater surveillance between February 24 and March 10 showed that 37 percent of reporting counties experienced an increase of 100 percent or more in the presence of viral RNA in their wastewater, while 15 percent of all sites reported a more than 1,000 percent increase.
The fundamental limitation of China’s Zero-COVID policy is its national character. As long as COVID-19 continues to spread globally, it remains possible for new variants to evolve that are more infectious, immune-resistant and virulent. Without an international strategy, the policy of Zero COVID will be continuously undermined.
To paraphrase the great Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky, the elimination of COVID-19 within national limits is unthinkable. The ending of the pandemic begins on the national arena, it unfolds on the international arena, and is completed on the world arena.
The deepening crisis of the pandemic intersects with a mounting geopolitical crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This desperate response of the Putin regime to the decades-long eastward expansion of NATO and drive by US imperialism to maintain its hegemony through the encirclement of Russia and China has profoundly destabilized an already fractured world order. Both crises, the war and the pandemic, are fueling the rise of inflation and economic instability, which in turn are provoking the growth of the class struggle internationally.
The only path forward to resolve the crisis of world capitalism is socialist revolution. The international working class must unify across national boundaries and mount a powerful global struggle to stop the drive to World War III, eliminate COVID-19 globally, and rebuild society on socialist foundations.
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