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Opinion | Restart China’s economy by reopening Hong Kong to the world
- China needs lots of help as it struggles with Covid-19, and Hong Kong can play a central role by offering a financial lifeline
- But this will only be possible if the city abandons its own zero-Covid straitjacket by dropping all policies except the one thing that actually works: community vaccination
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Late last week, two heavyweights issued nearly simultaneous warnings about the economic impact of China’s “zero-Covid” policy.
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“The Chinese economy at this moment is in the worst shape in the past 30 years,” said Shan Weijian, a storied Chinese private equity investor. Shan warned of a “deep economic crisis” that was “man-made”, the result of “draconian” pandemic policies.
Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China and a 30-year Beijing resident, painted a similarly bleak picture of a “crashing” economy brought low by “Covid zero”. He spoke of plunging freight volumes, a weakening yuan, capital outflows and stimulus measures that are “like a Band-Aid for an amputation”.
Worst of all, Wuttke said “China is losing its credibility” as a source for manufacturing, which is prompting many global businesses to restructure their supply chains away from the mainland. “Covid zero” has sparked radical uncertainty, sapping business confidence and freezing investment.
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That is not the kind of talk one normally expects from a genial chamber of commerce president.
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