China’s zero-Covid policies save lives, but not livelihoods

Since 2020, China has reported 5,226 COVID deaths among a population of 1.4 billion. In contrast, the disease has killed more than 1 million people in the United States.

China’s economy has suffered a great deal due to the death toll from COVID-19.

Beijinger Kai Xu, 36, has closed four of his five bars in Beijing and Chengdu in three years. Business was first disrupted by a temporary closure to comply with COVID policies. Now, hardly a customer walks through the door.

“I’ve been anxious, nervous and lost since the pandemic, and then the bars started closing one by one,” said Kai, who opened his first in 2016 as an architect at a state-owned enterprise. had left his job. Installation.

To offset the drop in walk-in customers, Cai has begun livestreaming musical performances for people isolated at home at his bar, which has been a surprise hit. For now, he will, while Cai looks for other ways to keep the rest of his bar in Beijing.

In January-March, China’s economy barely grew as authorities battled with the highly permeable Omicron variant. In April, the urban unemployment rate reached 6.1%, the highest since February 2020. In July, unemployment among people aged 16 to 24 reached a record 19.9%.

Since July, 30-year-old Zheng Meili has sent hundreds of job applications and conducted dozens of interviews in Beijing. But the more promising positions are paying only half of his earnings.

“A company called me for an interview, and before I left, told me they received thousands of applications a day,” she told Reuters.

“In just one day, a job that offers you 10,000 yuan ($1,390) a month, thousands of people have applied,” Zheng said in disbelief.

“The job market is very tough now.”

($1 = 7.1911 Chinese Yuan Renminbi)

This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.