China's Covid Policy Could Have Dire Effects on the Global Economy.
Hunter Mariotti
According to an article in the Wallstreet journal, Chinese president Xi JinPing has responded to recent, "outbreaks" of Covid-19 with incredibly strict lockdowns, including shutdowns of major production centers of China. The president continues to pursue a "zero-Covid" policy which is having considerable effects on the production of Chinese goods in areas such as Zhengzhou, one of the country's pivotal production centers.
China is obviously one of the largest contributors to the world economy being the second largest individual economy in the world. It's main offering to the world is production of goods at relatively cheap prices. Many staples of consumer goods companies outsource production to China such as Apple.
A halt of production in China could exacerbate the looming problems of much of the global economy. The U.S. and Europe are likely to fall, if they are not already, into recession, which could lower demand for Chinese goods. Chinese production of goods could serve as a slight dampener for the struggles that are slowly coming to fruition in the global market. However, the Chinese production system is, unfortunately, a victim of the predations of the Chinese Communist Party. The regime has made Covid-19 a focal point of their nation's policy, and continue to do so in a time when the Covid-19 virus has become less and less harmful to people. Not to mention a fully functioning vaccine that prevents people from contracting severe cases of the virus.
On the whole, the actions and policies currently being pursued by Chinese leadership will not only substantially stunt their own growth, but will create a larger issue for the rest of the world in a time of already grim economic outlook.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-factory-slowdown-worse-than-expected-under-weight-of-covid-policies-11667213933
Very interesting topic Hunter! Covid has definitely affected the economy on a global scale, but these strict lockdowns in China have definitely stunted China's economic growth, thus causing issues on a global scale. It is definitely worrying since the current economic outlook does not look very promising, so these lockdowns will only further exacerbate the issues at hand.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you covered China and their current polices regarding Covid. It shows that if they keep this policy in place, their production of certain goods could see a significant decrease in output which will hurt their economic standing in some way.
ReplyDeleteI like how you talked about the global implications of a slowdown in the Chinese economy. It's very interesting to think about how the policies of a significant foreign power have grave implications on the global economy. We'll see how the Covid situation in China plays out.
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