The largest electronics wholesale market in the world was shut down on Monday by Shenzhen, China, in reaction to a recent surge in coronavirus cases in the southern city. The nation’s “zero-COVID” policy, which a prominent Chinese think tank stated was causing massive business disruption, was being challenged at the time.
In order to contain the COVID epidemic, the largest electronics market in the world, which is located in the Huaqiangbei neighbourhood, was officially declared to be closed until Thursday.
During this period, all tenants are required to perform their daily nucleic acid tests in Hong Kong and must work from home. South China Morning Post cited Huaqiang Electronics World, one of the biggest companies in the region.
Important manufacturers, such as Apple supplier Foxconn Technology Group, telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co, and China’s top chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., were forced to follow a closed-loop system for a week in order to maintain their production schedules.
The new viral cluster has emerged as a result of a considerable spike in cases reported from nearby Shenzhen, Hong Kong. Monday was the second instance of COVID-19 spreading so quickly in recent months, with 8,488 new cases being recorded in Hong Kong.
A government pandemic advisor reportedly stated on Monday that the number of infections could increase to 20,000 by the next month.
The largest outbreak, which recently claimed many lives in the former British colony, took place.
1,522,460 cases and 9,668 fatalities have been documented in Hong Kong thus far.
Beijing has recently shuttered Sanya, the main summer resort in Hainan, and suspended flights and transportation services, leaving thousands of tourists stuck for days. This comes as Beijing continues to try to contain the spread of the Omicron type.
Shenzhen Recently, even China’s most modern industrial city had to shut down many times to deal with the sudden spikes in the virus’s activity.
China reported 301 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday across the country, of which 161 were in Sichuan Province, according to the National Health Commission on Monday.
In the report from the commission, 1,255 more local asymptomatic carriers, including 570 in Tibet and 98 in Hainan, were found on Sunday.
The infection has now claimed 5,226 lives in China.
Lockdowns for COVID-19 once more in China
The largest metropolis in China, Shanghai, was recently shut down as part of the COVID-19 lockdowns, which had a severe effect on the supply chains for industrialised goods in the second-largest economy in the world.
Everyone who lives in Beijing is currently required to submit to mandatory testing three days a week in order to ensure thorough inspections on the periodic surges.
The zero COVID-19 policy was expected to be in effect until the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) congress, which occurs once every five years.
In the upcoming months, a gathering to nominate Chinese President Xi Jinping for an unprecedented third term was anticipated to take place.
Unlike his predecessors who stepped down after two, five-year stints in office, Xi, 69, was anticipated to remain in office for at least one more term and maybe for the rest of his life.
After a Chinese think group demanded that the country’s 0% COVID-19 policy be amended because it was seriously disrupting trade and business, the decision to shut down the electronic hub was made.
In a rare public criticism of the ‘zero-COVID’ policy imposed by Xi, a Chinese think tank declared on Sunday that the viral limitations that periodically cause city shutdowns hurting trade, travel, and industry must be changed to prevent an economic slowdown.
According to the Anbound Research Centre, the US, Europe, and Japan are all experiencing economic growth after anti-disease restrictions were loosened, and that the government should focus on shoring up declining growth.
The think tank asserted in a paper titled It’s Time for China to Adjust Its Virus Control and Prevention Policies that averting the possibility of an economic slowdown had to come first.
Rarely does a think tank openly criticise the CPC’s policies or its leader.