Posted on by

With ‘Zero Covid,’ China Proved It’s Good at Control. Governance Is Harder.



Share

A widely circulated WeChat article speculated that the shortage of fever medications reflected the government’s lack of preparation for loosening control. And if the government had shown the same political will that it had in carrying out “zero Covid,” the article argued, it could have ensured there was ample supply of such medication.“It doesn’t care about the ordinary people, leaving them to fend for themselves and even delighting in their chaos,” the article said, and it urged officials to show up where the public most needed them to win back trust.The low confidence in the government is forcing people to help themselves and help one another. In local WeChat groups, people made arrangements to share their fever medicines and rapid test kits with their neighbors.Tencent, the social media giant, also built a WeChat pr …

Read More