Covid-19: China confronts dilemma of lockdown in Beijing as cases hit record high

At least 113 people have been infected with Covid-19 in China’s capital, health authorities announced on Wednesday, and the pressure is growing on local officials to contain infection. Some 1,300 kilometres away, in China’s largest city Shanghai, a strict lockdown has already been imposed on the population for the past month in an attempt to stem the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Avoiding Shanghai’s mistakes

But Beijing’s picture could be grimmer, since the latest figures in the Chinese capital do not include cases detected during the testing wave launched on Sunday: Authorities have, in effect, decided that the 21 million residents of Beijing must undergo three tests over five days.

The local government wants to avoid repeating the mistakes of Shanghai at all costs: Testing had only begun there after contaminations topped 1,000, too late to contain the epidemic without resorting to the heavy artillery of China’s “zero Covid” policy, a strict lockdown. The drastic measures still in place after a month led to a rare public expression of anger in Communist China, led by a regime that has very little tolerance for political dissent.

Beijing authorities insist that no Shanghai-style lockdown will be imposed, but they do admit that “the epidemic situation is complex and severe”, Tian Wei, a local government spokesman, said on Tuesday.

Some restrictions are nevertheless already being put in place. This is particularly the case in the Chaoyang district, where most of the infections in the capital have been recorded. One of its most popular and important districts, Chaoyang houses most foreign embassies as well as luxurious Western shops, chic restaurants and bars.