The protests in China over that country’s “zero-COVID” policy have led to a torrent of schadenfreude in the Western media. There is barely contained glee present in Western -especially American- media coverage and the underlying hope that these protests signal a larger collapse of China’s system. It is too early to say what will happen, but the fact that so many in the West are so eager to see China “fail” says more about the West than the target of its hostility.
Led by the US, the West believes it is in an ideological war with China. If China, with its different values and political/economic systems “succeeds” then the West’s right to control the world based on its inherent superiority is diminished. COVID policy has become the measure of this imaginary conflict. On that score, the Western world –especially the US -has failed spectacularly.
According to the John Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, over the past 28 days (from December 6, 2022), 1,232,801 people were infected with COVID in the U.S. 8,638 died. By contrast, about 918,014 people were infected with COVID in China, 360 died. In the entire pandemic, 16,083 Chinese have died from COVID. By contrast, the COVID death toll in the US is 1,082,195. The US is “living with COVID” by normalizing mass COVID death, much as it has normalized mass shootings, except it has stopped talking about COVID.
We have no reason to doubt these figures. Throughout the pandemic, China has conducted its internal affairs exactly as if the figures it has been providing are accurate. When it indicated it had minimal cases, its citizens functioned without restrictions. When cases of COVID appeared, China locked down tight. The disease has become impossible to control, however, as more communicable variants have spread.
To date, 48,297 Canadians have died from COVID. In the past 28 days, 64,495 Canadians have been infected; 1,325 died. This death rate significantly exceeds that of the US. In the same time, Malaysia, with 71,936 infections, lost 221 people. Singapore, with 48,168 infections, lost 16 people. Faced with these terrible numbers, Canadian politicians and health officials seem unwilling to protect public health, apparently due to their fear of a vocal and aggressive minority. The death toll in Canada continues to escalate.
China’s zero COVID policy has come with high economic and social costs. It has sometimes been brutal and clumsy. But it has avoided the mass death that Americans are ignoring. China has definitely made mistakes. Only 69 per cent of those over 60 have received a second booster shot and only 40 per cent of those over 80. The elderly distrust vaccines and have avoided getting vaccinated because of COVID’s relative rarity.
China should make vaccines for the elderly mandatory. It can bring in the higher quality mRNA vaccines to increase protection though, based on the death rate, Chinese vaccines seem to be working well. Nonetheless, vaccines do not prevent infection. As China eases up on its COVID restrictions, many vulnerable, vaccinated people will lose their lives. If the wave of infections is large enough -and in a country of 1.4 billion, any wave can be enormous – China’s fragile healthcare system may collapse. This is the long-term catastrophic outcome China’s COVID policies have tried to avoid.
Canada is a cautionary tale. Canadian healthcare is on the verge of collapse in part because unvaccinated people swamped the hospitals in disproportionate numbers throughout the pandemic. Exhausted medical professionals have retired in droves, leaving hospitals short-staffed. Death and illness from delayed medical care and the effects of long COVID on Canada’s healthcare system remain to be seen.
In the West, the resentment of China’s COVID success is partly driven by a refusal to admit the truth of the many profound weaknesses that COVID has revealed in Western societies -especially the harsh reality that “individualism” has nurtured sociopathic tendencies in large parts of the population.
If China fails at containing COVID, Westerners can persist in the delusion that “our system” is “the best” rather than having to critically engage with Western failure. They can push aside the need to truthfully examine the violent and exploitative foundations underpinning Western society, opting for mindless platitudes about “freedom” and “democracy” instead.
The Western need to tear China down reflects the nagging fear that Western states may not really have the answers to difficult political and economic questions. This fear is justified. Western values are not universal. Western political and economic ideologies exaggerate the relevance of Western experience, whitewash Western history, and reflect an ignorance of the rest of the world. The sooner we recognize our numerous failures and limitations, the better we will be. The people protesting China’s zero COVID policy are sympathetic figures. Their resentment of harsh COVID restrictions is understandable. But they may regret their actions if COVID is unleashed and the vulnerable start dying in the millions. China’s success in keeping its population alive, until now, is a remarkable achievement. China needs to fully vaccinate the elderly. Hopefully, that will be enough for it to avoid catastrophe and keep it from following the same dismal path as so many states in the West.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
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