As countries around the world scramble to contain the spread of the highly infectious Covid-19 coronavirus, China appears to have successfully contained the pathogen. With official figures showing that the crisis, which first started in Wuhan, China, may have stabilized, other countries have started taking a look at how the Chinese did it.

 

The first proof that China is indeed winning the war against the virus was the President Xi Jinping’s visit to Wuhan on Tuesday (March 10) – the first time since the outbreak began in Dec 2019. Obviously, the president would be advised against taking unnecessary risks, even if it was for publicity stunt. After all, there was no need for such a political stunt in a nation like China.

 

The second sign that the Coronavirus cases have indeed declined was the closure of the last of a dozen temporary hospitals in Wuhan such as converted sports centre and factories. Even before the President Xi’s visit to Wuhan, about 11 of 16 temporary hospitals that had been converted from public facilities including stadiums and schools were closed by Sunday.

Then there was Shanghai Disney who said it’s shopping and entertainment Disneytown zone would be reopened. Another sign that the worst is over in China was an order issued by Hubei Airport Group to all airports in the province to get back to work by Thursday. Some schools have also reopened as the Chinese economy is on track to get back to business.

 

Beijing reported only 19 new Coronavirus infections on Tuesday, down from 40 a day earlier. Even though 19,000 people are still getting treatment for the virus, it was a huge improvement as compared to as high as 58,000 on Feb 24. As of today (March 11), China has a total 80,785 Coronavirus case and 3,158 deaths, while 61,503 have recovered.

 

However, the virus has spread across the planet, infecting almost 114,000 people globally and taking at least 4,000 lives. Despite initial criticism over the Chinese handling of the outbreak, amusingly, the world is taking a second look at how Beijing managed to win the war. When China locked down some 50 million people in more than a dozen cities, many slammed the draconian approach.

On Monday (March 9), amusingly, Italy did the same – locking down the entire country of 60.5 million populations. While Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told his entire nation to “stay at home”, the government also imposed some restrictions, including suspension of weddings and even funerals. The country has now 10,149 confirmed cases and 631 deaths from the virus.

 

As the third-largest economy in the Euro zone, but with massive debt, economists and analysts are debating whether Italy could afford a Wuhan-style full shutdown for a long period of time. People have already started complaining and struggling with the new ways of life. JPMorgan expects Italy’s economy to slide 7.5% in the first quarter from the previous quarter.

 

Indeed, Beijing could easily lock down an entire city of Wuhan (11 million people), or even a dozen more thereafter, because the iron-fisted approach can only be executed in a country controlled by the China’s Communist Party. To ensure people were really restricted and did not cheat, Beijing deployed enforcers to actually guard the gates of residential compounds.

In fact, between January and February, the Chinese had confined 507.5 million people either in full or partial lockdown covering 20 provinces. That half a billion people population is about the size of the European Union. Imagine all the 27 member countries in Europe put on lockdown like China. It was more than the populations of the U.S. (327.2 million) and Russia (144.5 million) combined.

 

In addition, the Chinese government leveraged on state-run mobile carriers to track down anyone who disobeyed the lock-down order. Such measure which breaches privacy will definitely invite condemnations from human rights activists if being carried out in the Western countries. But in China, nobody would dare to question the authorities of the uniformed law enforcement officers.

 

China’s big three telecom providers – China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – have been working hand in glove with authorities by sharing location data on users with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. That information would later pass to the National Health Commission and other response team involved in the containment of the Coronavirus.

Desperate times calls for desperate measures. What is regarded as draconian tactics in the U.S. and Europe has proven to be the working solution in China. And unlike China who has a very high tolerance for economic pain, Italy does not have deep pocket to use the same tactics. As of February 2020, China possesses the world’s biggest foreign reserves – US$3.107 trillion.

 

In the United States, at least 32 people have died of the virus nationwide with confirmed Coronavirus cases reaches 1,016 people. While there was mounting evidence that strict control measures pay off in China, the responsibility for combating the infectious disease largely falls on individual state governments in America, each of which has its own laws governing quarantines.

 

However, as the virus spread across the U.S., the authorities have warned that mandatory preventive measures may be necessary. When push comes to shove, Trump administration might toy with the idea of a lock-down like the one implemented in Italy. But such option would be definitely met with strong opposition as it is amount to martial law.

Still, the U.S. authorities can use a more acceptable word like “containment” instead of “lockdown”. On Tuesday, the New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that schools, places of worship and other large gathering spots within a one-mile zone of the city of New Rochelle will close for 14 days. National Guard troops will be called to help deliver food.

 

Digital surveillance in the U.S. would require subpoenas, a legal obstacle to accessing personal tracking data. Inspired by China’s success, some Asian governments like South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore have tapped credit-card transactions, ride-sharing data, mobile phone signals and surveillance cameras to monitor people under self-quarantine.

 

The Singapore government has threatened to slap Coronavirus patients with thousands of dollars in fines – or even jail time – if they lie about their travel history. Last month, a Chinese man was charged for giving false information about his movements and whereabouts. For violating self-quarantine, the immigration officers have even withdrawn the permanent resident status of a foreigner.

 

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March 11th, 2020 by financetwitter

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