US media outlets now recognize China's zero-COVID policy. Is it too late for them? --- By Global Times Feb 17, 2022
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252520.shtml
亲历北京冬奥抗疫，美媒对中国“清零”的调子变了……好意外
丁悦 2022-02-17 16:21:38 观察者网
（观察者网讯）“中国的‘清零’政策给其他国家上了一课。”
自从新冠肺炎疫情发生以来，西方媒体多次攻击中国的“动态清零”政策，抹黑中国抗疫成就。近期随着北京冬奥的举办，处于闭环内的外媒记者得以亲身体验中国是如何防疫的，对中国“清零”政策报道调子也发生变化。
《纽约时报》记者此前亲身验证“中国真清零了”，令在美国的同事大为震惊，彭博社也谈起了“清零”的好处，《华尔街日报》更是指出，中国之所以能有效应对疫情，是因为人民信任政府以及人民相互信任。
2月16日，《华尔街日报》首席经济评论员叶伟平（Greg Ip）撰文指出，中国“清零”政策，从内部来看效果显著，实现了低死亡率和尽可能少的经济中断。比起所谓“民主制度”，真正发挥作用的是信任。人民越信任政府或彼此信任，一个国家就越能有效地应对疫情。
China's 'Zero-Covid' policy holds lessons for other countries
《华尔街日报》报道：中国的“清零”政策给其他国家上了一课
文章开头便指出了西方对中国“清零”政策的种种怀疑，如怀疑这一政策是否能够长期维持，称随着新的、更具传染性的变异毒株不断出现，“清零”政策的维持成本也会变高。
但文章同时指出，这一政策已经在中国持续下去了，并且从中国内部来看，效果显著。从冬奥会来看，所有境外来华参赛人员直接进入名为“泡泡”的闭环管理系统，从而保证了城市其他区域居民正常生活，商店、博物馆、办公室正在营业，地铁和道路交通与2019年的时候保持一致。美国人现在才开始摆脱新冠，但大多数中国人早在2020年就开始这样做了。
文章称，西方人对中国充满不信任，很难冷静地评估中国的新冠政策，地缘政治的紧张局势往往会模糊“清零”政策的成就及其对其他国家的教育意义。侧重金融、商业领域的《华尔街日报》格外关注“清零”对中国的经济影响，它直言，尽管“清零”政策并非没有成本，中国的消费者支出受到封锁和旅行限制的打击，但“清零”政策帮助中国实现了低死亡率和尽可能少的经济中断，这也是两年前每个国家追求的。尽管受到了疫情打击，但中国2021年的GDP与疫情前预测的大致相同。
虽然文章依旧对“清零”政策的可持续性提出质疑，坚称“不可能无限期维持‘清零’政策”，但文章同时称，值得研究的是，中国如何在这么长时间内维持零疫情。中国投入了巨大的资源，最重要的是检测能力，一个人口不足500万的城市能够在2天内对每位居民进行PCR新冠检测，一个超过500万人口的城市可以在3天内完成全市检测。“巨大的资源和地方合作使中国能够抑制感染，并且对生活的干扰小于疫情肆虐的其他国家。”而与之相对的，在奥密克戎浪潮期间，许多美国人都无法进行检测。
文章指出，在名为“动态清零”的更有针对性的方法下，限制通常只覆盖一个地区、一个社区或一座建筑物。“一些地方在短期内承受了严厉的限制和中断，因此大部分地区都可以不受限制。这种平衡到目前为止得到了相当一部分民众支持，”驻北京的龙洲经讯分析师崔尔南说。
根据金融服务公司高盛制定的限制和流动性指数，去年中国的生活受到的疫情影响远小于其他国家 。在其他国家，疫情浪潮已经损害了企业，关闭了学校，同时在疾病和死亡方面产生了巨大的、无法量化的成本。但中国赢得了时间推出疫苗、疗法和医疗设施以减轻影响。因此，普通中国人支持并愿意与清零政策合作，因为他们看到了这一政策的好处。
“在这场大流行中，我们发现民主与成效之间没有任何关系”，美国外交关系委员会全球卫生项目主任托马斯·博利基（Thomas Bollyky）说，比起所谓民主制度，医学期刊《柳叶刀》发表的一项研究发现，抗疫中真正发挥作用的其实是信任。
医学期刊《柳叶刀》发文：感染率和死亡率分析，以及177个国家的防备相关因素
研究发现，人民越信任政府或彼此信任，一个国家就越能有效地应对疫情。信任政府的人民更有可能遵守社交距离、追踪密切接触者以及口罩和疫苗的规定。在缺乏信任的地方，人民不太可能遵守，政府也不太可能提出要求。而人民之间相互信任可以鼓励人民做保护他人的事情，并相信其他人也会这样做。
根据世界价值观调查，中国对政府的信任度很高，而在美国则很低。文章总结称，这就是中国抗疫成功的教育意义，相较中国，美国的民主制度需要更好地运作。
China's 'Zero-Covid' Policy Holds Lessons for Other Nations
Enormous resources, local cooperation enable China to suppress infections with less disruption to life than in countries where pandemic still rages
China's 'Zero-Covid' Policy Creates New Supply-Chain Worries
China's 'Zero-Covid, Policy Creates New Supply-Chain Worries
To keep out Covid-19, China closed some border gates late last year, leaving produce to rot in trucks. Restrictions like these and rules at some Chinese ports, the gateways for goods headed to the world, could cascade into delays in the global supply chain. Photo composite: Emily Siu
By Feb. 16, 2022 2:45 pm ET
Ever since China adopted its policy of stamping out every Covid-19 infection, outsiders have wondered whether it could last. With each new, more infectious variant, “zero Covid” has required more vigilant and frequent crackdowns on daily activity.
And yet it has lasted. And seen from inside China, the results are remarkable. Foreigners in Beijing for the Olympics may be confined to a dystopian bubble in constant fear of being quarantined. But outside the bubble, life in the city looks close to normal with stores, museums and offices operating and subway and road traffic in line with this time of year in 2019. Americans only now are moving on from the coronavirus. Most Chinese did so back in 2020.
US media outlets now recognize China’s zero-COVID policy. Is it too late for them?
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252520.shtml
By Global Times Feb 17, 2022 07:47 PM
White flags are seen on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the United States, on September 16, 2021. More than 660,000 white flags were installed here to honor the lives lost to COVID-19 in the United States.Photo:Xinhua
"China's 'Zero-Covid' Policy Holds Lessons for Other Nations," reads the headline of an article in The Wall Street Journal Wednesday. This surprised many people, who questioned whether this was the same media that had constantly attacked China on its COVID-19 prevention and control strategy.
Such "abnormality" can also be seen in a recent Bloomberg article, entitled "Why the World Needs China's Covid-Zero Policy," which affirms the role China's dynamic zero-COVID policy has been playing in safeguarding global supply chains.
It seems like some US media outlets, willingly or not, have finally woken up to reality. According to Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, this is because it is clear the impact of different epidemic responses in China and the US on each nation's economic and social development. Facts and results of Beijing's epidemic prevention and control policy are just too hard to deny now.
One of the examples would be how China managed to control the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus amid the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Before the event began, some Western media and elites kept hyping the theory that China's zero-COVID strategy "won't work" against the highly transmissible variant. But now that the Games are coming to an end, the situation, both inside and outside the "closed loop" management system, has slapped these people in the face.
Yet, the existence of those relatively calm voices in US media does not mean that Washington is trying to learn from Beijing's experience in COVID-19 prevention and control. This is more a way for US elites to reflect on their country's mistakes through the contrasting realities between China and the US caused by different COVID-19 strategies.
Of course, even if some in Washington want to learn from Beijing, the former cannot fully learn from the latter's experience. Li told the Global Times that this is partly due to cultural and institutional differences. For example, in contrast to individualism and decentralization in the US, China's strong top-down devotion to take action and ability to cooperate shown in the epidemic prevention and control process is something hard for others to learn.
On the other hand, the learning process will be hindered by the US' foul political environment, including polarization of domestic politics, dysfunction of the political system, and rising anti-China sentiment. Li noted that many opportunistic careerists are taking advantage of the loopholes in the US system. "US politicians now show the importance of themselves or their party through attacking their political rivals. They think more about how to use the chaos at home to increase their own power," he said.
Against such a backdrop, the public's distrust of the government has also grown. As a result, people in the US are more likely to disagree with any policy the government has developed. This has, in fact, pushed Washington into a dead end in the fight against the epidemic.
With all these barriers, the West, particularly the US, is facing a painful dilemma: To learn from China - too difficult; not to learn from China - more tragedies. Moreover, for some Western elites, learning from the Chinese experience means confirming that China has beaten the West in terms of COVID-19 strategy. This is something they do not want to admit. This is why self-reflection from US media came so late.
The novel coronavirus has killed more than 920,000 people in the US, and the number is still rising. People always say, "Better late than never." But now the question is, how much time is left for US elites to continue to reflect and make changes before the country reaches the disgraceful milestone of one million deaths?
The White House COVID-19 Response Team announced Wednesday that the US is moving toward "a time when COVID isn't a crisis." However, is the crisis really over soon? It is afraid that the crisis in US politics and society exposed during the epidemic will still linger on.
The US allows so many COVID-19 cases and deaths, while American elites very foolishly criticize China's dynamic zero ...
