{"id":1515954,"date":"2022-06-14T17:49:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T21:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1515954"},"modified":"2022-06-14T17:49:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T21:49:16","slug":"china-faces-economic-slowdown-amidst-covid-lockdowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-faces-economic-slowdown-amidst-covid-lockdowns\/","title":{"rendered":"China Faces Economic Slowdown Amidst COVID Lockdowns"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchina-faces-economic-slowdown-amidst-covid-lockdowns%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1515954&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/china\">China<\/a> faces an economic slowdown attributed by many observers to its draconian \u2018zero-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/covid-19\">COVID<\/a>\u2019 lockdown policies, which even the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/world-health-organization\">World Health Organization (WHO)<\/a> has criticized as excessively harsh.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese economy experienced a period of rapid economic growth in the decades following its economic liberalization in 1978 and entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3085501\/china-overtakes-us-no-1-buying-power-still-clings-developing\">some measures<\/a> surpassing the U.S. to become the largest economy in the world. However, according to reporting from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/4515ef0a-b9be-4598-98bc-f45b6100c70a\">Financial Times<\/a>, the Chinese manufacturing sector \u2014 a key component of its economy \u2014 shrank for the third month in a row in May, and retail sales within the country were down 11% in April. Export growth rates have slowed to levels comparable to those experienced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the summer of 2020. Lockdowns and travel restrictions have wreaked havoc among supply chains, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/4515ef0a-b9be-4598-98bc-f45b6100c70a\">major manufacturers like Apple<\/a> have begun moving production out of the country. Some analysts believe US economic growth could outpace China\u2019s for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-05-20\/us-growth-seen-outpacing-china-s-for-first-time-since-1976#xj4y7vzkg\">first time since 1976<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In cities across the country, even those without reported cases, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/06\/14\/business\/china-covid-testing.html\">millions of citizens<\/a> line up for COVID-19 tests daily as negative test results are required to participate in everyday economic life. Conversely, a positive diagnosis can result in eviction to quarantine facilities, and more significant outbreaks can lead to months-long lockdowns. This zero-tolerance policy has led even former admirers of China\u2019s COVID-19 response to criticize the authoritarian nation, as COVID-19 has mutated into <a href=\"https:\/\/coronavirus.jhu.edu\/pandemic-data-initiative\/data-outlook\/comparing-cases-deaths-and-hospitalizations-indicates-omicron-less-deadly\">less lethal strains<\/a>, and most of the world has shifted its focus to vaccination efforts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe virus is evolving, changing its behavior,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/59882774\">said<\/a> Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, director-general of the WHO. \u201cWith that\u2026 changing your measures will be very important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chinese President Xi Jinping has insisted that China\u2019s approach is \u201cscientific and effective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an official statement responding to the WHO, the Chinese government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmprc.gov.cn\/mfa_eng\/xwfw_665399\/s2510_665401\/2511_665403\/202205\/t20220511_10684604.html\">said<\/a>, \u201cChina\u2019s huge population means that relaxing prevention and control measures will inevitably lead to the death of a large number of elderly people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s internal restrictions face limited opposition within the country, as its lockdown fatigued population has begun protesting the measures. The Mayor of Dandong, a major city near the border with North Korea, went so far as to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/world\/china-covid-19-lockdown-response\">apologize<\/a> for the government\u2019s handling of the situation, although he avoided naming specifics.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese officials are unlikely to reverse the unpopular policies without the go-ahead from senior members of the Communist Party.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you are a local government official and you are facing these competing demands, you are going to rank them,\u201d said Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. \u201cI think any rational local government official will still have more incentives to enthusiastically pursue zero Covid than to take a more flexible approach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If official statistics are to be believed, then China has experienced a remarkably low death rate from COVID-19, roughly 3 per million, compared to roughly 1,000 times fewer deaths per million than the US.<\/p>\n<p>Until recently, experts had projected that China would account for roughly one-fifth of all global economic growth until at least 2026, but these estimates have been scaled back.<\/p>\n<p>According to an economic overview released by the World Bank in April 2022, \u201cChina is currently experiencing the largest COVID-19 wave since the end of the national lockdown in March 2020. [\u2026] Over the medium term, China\u2019s economy is facing structural headwinds given adverse demographics, tepid productivity growth, and the legacies of excessive borrowing and environmental pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A declining labor force is also a topic of considerable concern. The world\u2019s largest nation of more than 1.4 billion grew by fewer than half a million people in 2021 and is projected to decline in total population for the foreseeable future, a trend that commenters such as Elon Musk have described as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/civilization-is-going-to-crumble-musk-on-chinas-plummeting-birth-rate-and-the-need-to-repopulate-the-planet\">\u2018population collapse\u2019<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>China spent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/civilization-is-going-to-crumble-musk-on-chinas-plummeting-birth-rate-and-the-need-to-repopulate-the-planet\">decades encouraging smaller families<\/a> through various measures such as its infamous one-child policy, but its recent pro-natalist reversal and new three-child policy seem unlikely to reverse the decline. With an aging population and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globaltimes.cn\/content\/1209713.shtml\">severe sex imbalance<\/a>, partly brought on by sex-selective abortions, China will likely face serious internal instability and further population decline in the next few decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China faces an economic slowdown attributed by many observers to its draconian \u2018zero-COVID\u2019 lockdown policies, which even the World Health Organization (WHO) has criticized as excessively harsh. The Chinese economy experienced a period of rapid economic growth in the decades following its economic liberalization in 1978 and entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":856,"featured_media":1516014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1515954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/856"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1515954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1516014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1515954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1515954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1515954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}