Covid, shadow over the Winter Olympics. China has condemned itself not to fail

by time news

Beijing a few weeks before the start of the Olympics

Covid-19, the new outbreak in China threatens Xi’s zero contagion rhetoric

Covid-19 is scary again in China. And it does so in a non-trivial moment, a few weeks after the start of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The numbers, if compared to those of Italy or Western countries in general, may seem laughable. And they are. But for the first time the contact-tracing system seems to have partially skipped. And then there is another problem for Beijing: the Chinese government has focused its strategy on “zero infections “. This means, in addition to stringent containment measures, that each outbreak ends up testing the validity of the narrative that the Chinese model is superior to the Western one.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, December 28, the record of Covid-19 cases in China was recorded, the highest number in 21 months. It all started from Xi’an, a metropolis of 13 million inhabitants, ancient imperial capital and point of departure (or arrival, depending on the point of view) of the ancient Silk Road. The inhabitants of Xi’an have been in lockdown since last week to contain the infections. But as of today Yan’an, 300 kilometers away from Xi’an, has also ended up in lockdown.

Record outbreak (for China) in Xi’an: millions of people in lockdown

Businesses in Yan’an were ordered to close while hundreds of thousands of people in one neighborhood were ordered to stay indoors. The latest bulletin of the National Health Commission, reported by the Xinhua agency, reports 182 new cases of local transmission of Covid-19 – 180 of which in the northern province of Shaanxi where Xi’an and Yan’an are located – 27 ‘imported’ cases and 21 related to asymptomatic patients. Yesterday, writes the Global Times, there were 175 confirmed cases in Xi’an, including a newborn just 38 days old.

The number of infections occurred by local transmission it is very low compared to that recorded in most countries of the world (209 cases) but is the highest daily balance since March 2020, when the virus was just starting to spread around the world from the city of Wuhan. And China, as mentioned, has opted for a zero-Covid strategy, of complete eradication of the virus with strict restrictions. However, there are some inconveniences regarding tracking and hospital pressure. They have been in Xi’an since yesterday restrictions further tightened and all the inhabitants are asked to stay at home, with the sole exception of the mass tests, while previously one component per household could go out every two days for shopping.

The value of the Winter Olympics for the Chinese government

There is a twofold issue at stake. The first is very practical, and is related to Winter Olympic Games which will start on February 4th. A little over a month. The government wants to avoid at all costs changes to the Olympic program on the one hand, but also that the event could become an occasion for mass contagion on the other. This is why draconian security measures are foreseen to prevent the advance of infections towards the capital.

the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing they had been an opportunity to show the world that China was back on the global stage. While the Western world suffered prey to the financial crisis, Beijing had remained almost immune and indeed had taken that signal as confirmation and impetus of its own ambitions. This time they should serve to affirm its privileged position to the world. Not only on the global stage, but also in the center.

To do this, however, Covid must be stopped. Net of diplomatic boycotts, the Olympic Games will serve to present China on the international stage no longer as an emerging country in search of validation, but as a great power now established. Status which, in Chinese rhetoric, is also achieved through the affirmation of the superiority of its pandemic management model compared to that of the United States and the West in general. By affirming this superiority and reaffirming the validity of the zero contagion strategy, Beijing has condemned itself not to be able to fail.

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