China’s Covid policy: A case study of people-centric governance

The Covid-19 policy of China is under fire. Opponents are hell-bent to malign China. They criticised lockdown policy and propagated it was against human rights. Now, they are not satisfied with easing of lockdown policy.

Regrettably, propaganda is going on without presenting any data. There is no genuine research analysis of Covid-19 policy of China, and no effort was made to study the benefits/impacts of this policy on the health and well-being of people.

However, analysis of China’s Covid-19 policy shows it had to tackle three challenges. First, outbreak of Covid-19 was sudden and nobody knew what this disease was and how to combat it. There was no vaccine or medicine to fight back the virus. Second challenge was how to protect livelihoods and living needs of people without compromising the life of people.

It was a huge task as China had to deal with 1400 million people spread over more 9.5 million square kilometre. It required trillions of dollars to help people secure their livelihoods. Third gigantic task was how to protect economy in the face of lockdown.

China, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping and Community Party of China, held its nerve and started devising mechanisms to find answers to these challenges. China took a leave of wisdom from the book of people-centric governance. President Xi defined the policy guidelines by saying human life is more important than anything else. Hence, first and foremost task of the Communist Party of China and government must be to protect the human life. After protecting life, China can think about other things. President Xi introduced three strategies which China implemented in a stepwise manner.

First, China put efforts to check the spread of Covid-19 at any cost. They applied the strategy of Sun Zu – attack the enemy where it matters most. China immediately applied lockdown strategy to break the cycle of spread. It worked.

It is not exaggeration or self-assumed assumption. Data backs it. The statistics indicate since the outbreak of Covid-19, China lost 5523 lives. Although, every life matters, the number is extremely low in comparison with other countries. After successful execution of lockdown policy, China is moving to ease the restriction. China is confident with the innovation of vaccine and control mechanisms, it will be in better position to combat the pandemic.

Second, President Xi marched his troops from CPC and government to ensure that no one sleeps hungry and living needs of people must be met at any cost. Food supply chain must be functional and people must get food, no matter what efforts CPC or government will have to make. There should be no shortages or price-hikes. Now, imagine for a moment, how China managed to take care of 1400 million people.

China was able to satisfy the living needs of people, health needs and food provision without price-hike. If we compare the price situation in other markets, it seems unbelievable what China achieved. It was only due to governance system which is built on the principles of people-centric governance philosophy.

Third, the task was even more complex and complicated. China had to make a choice, either run the business at the cost of human life or close it to protect human life. China opted for second choice. Now, the question was how to sustain economy. China applied innovative tools and technologies to keep the momentum of economy. Owning to innovative policy choices, China was able to sustain the shock. China was only major economy in 2020 which had positive GDP growth rate of 2.34pc in 2020 and grew at the rate of 8.1pc in 2021.

China not only protected human life and economy but also kept on moving on the ladder of development. In 2021, China became only country with zero poverty. It shows that China not only tackled unusual situation but also kept focus on its goal of poverty elimination.

From the above discussion, we can deduce three conclusions. First, China tackled the issue in a wise manner by applying required policy choices and implementation strategies. China did not surrender in front of criticism or propaganda; it kept its focus on goal. Second, success of China belongs to wise leadership of CPC and President Xi. They devised right set of policy and implementation tools.

Third, the people-centric governance model of China helped tackle the pandemic without compromising needs of people and the economy. This governance model is built on the philosophy that human can only enjoy human rights, freedom of speech and movement if they are alive and their living needs are met properly with due respect to their dignity.

Lastly, Covid-19 policy of China is an excellent case study, rather success story of people-centric governance which can help other countries learn importance of this model.