Chinese government response to COVID-19

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During the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, the government of China under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping's administration pursued a zero-COVID strategy to prevent the domestic spread of COVID-19^[1] until December 7, 2022.^[2] Aspects of the response have been controversial, with the zero-COVID approach being praised^[3][4] and the government's lack of transparency,^[5][6] censorship,^[7][8] and spread of misinformation^[9] being criticized. The government abandoned its zero-COVID policy on 7 December 2022.^[10]

After discovery of a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, a public notice on the outbreak was distributed on 31 December 2019.^[11] Three days earlier on 28 December 2019, Chinese researchers in Beijing uploaded a fully mapped sequence of COVID-19's structure to the NIH GenBank, but the report was never publicly accessible due to it missing technical, non-scientific information required for submission despite NIH attempts to communicate with the report author.^[12] On 8 January 2020, a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was announced by Chinese scientists as the cause of the new disease;^[13] and on 10 January a nearly identical virus to the 28 December upload was sequenced and its genome made available online.^[14] On 17 January 2024, The Wall Street Journal released a report about the former 28 December upload that officially contradicted the Chinese government's claim that knowledge of the cause of the outbreak in the early weeks of January 2020 was unknown, and that information was shared as soon as it was available.^[12]

On 23 January 2020, the Chinese government banned travel to and from Wuhan, enforced strict quarantines in affected regions and initiated a national response.^[11] The epidemic in Hubei province peaked on 4 February 2020.^[11] Large temporary hospitals were built in Wuhan to isolate patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms, with the first opening on 5 February 2020.^[3] The epidemic was heavily concentrated within Hubei province and Wuhan. Through 22 March 2020, over 80% of the recorded cases in China were in Hubei province, with over 60% of cases nationwide occurring in Wuhan alone.^[15]

By the summer of 2020, China had largely brought the outbreak under control, ending widespread community transmission.^[16] After the initial outbreak, lockdowns and other restrictive measures were eased throughout China.^[17] The lockdown in Wuhan was lifted on 8 April 2020.^[17] It is estimated that the epidemic control measures held the death toll due to COVID-19 in Wuhan to under 5,000 from January to March 2020.^[18]

China was one of a small number of countries that pursued an elimination strategy, sustaining zero or low case numbers over the long term.^[17] Until late 2022, most cases in China were imported from abroad, and several new outbreaks were quickly controlled through intense short-term public health measures, including large-scale testing, contact tracking technology, and mandatory isolation of infected individuals.^[17] In the 18 months following containment of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, two COVID-19 deaths were recorded.^[19][20] In December 2022, the Chinese government ended its zero-COVID policy and mass testing following protests across the country.^[2]

In 2020 and 2021, China was the largest exporter of COVID-19 critical medical products.^[21][22] China was the world's largest exporter of face masks, increasing exports by around 600% in the first half of 2020.^[22] A number of COVID-19 vaccines have been developed in China, which have been used in its vaccination programme and international vaccine diplomacy. Through November 2021, China was the world's largest exporter of COVID-19 vaccines, with a cumulative share of around 40% of worldwide exports (totalling around 1.5 billion doses), according to the World Trade Organization.^[23]

China's response to the initial Wuhan COVID-19 outbreak has been both praised and criticised. In October 2020, The Lancet Infectious Diseases reported: "While the world is struggling to control COVID-19, China has managed to control the pandemic rapidly and effectively."^[3] The Chinese government has been criticized for censorship, which observers have attributed to a culture of institutional censorship affecting the country's press and Internet. The government censored whistleblowers, journalists, and social media posts about the outbreak. During the beginning of the pandemic, the Chinese government made efforts to clamp down on discussion and hide reporting about it, as such information was seen as unfavorable for local officials. Efforts to fund and control research into the virus's origins have continued up to the present.^[24]