Official defends China’s tough zero-Covid policy as showing ‘superiority’ of political system

Name: SCMP Explains: The ‘two sessions’ – China’s most important political meetings of the year
Uploaded: 2022-03-03T14:15:10.000Z
Duration: 3 min 42 s
Description: SCMP Explains: The ‘two sessions’ – China’s most important political meetings of the year

Spokesman for the country’s top political advisory body says pandemic controls are ‘relatively low-cost and effective’

He also says criticism that it has disrupted global supply chains is ‘wrong’, saying it has instead ensured stability

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CPPCC spokesman Guo Weimin (second from right) called China’s pandemic control measures “relatively low-cost and effective”. Photo: Xinhua

Mimi Lau

Published: 10:15pm, 3 Mar 2022Updated: 10:57pm, 3 Mar 2022

A Chinese official on Thursday defended the country’s strict zero-Covid controls, saying they showed the political system’s “superiority”, amid calls for the policy to be adjusted.

“Our pandemic control measures are relatively low-cost and effective,” said Guo Weimin, spokesman for the country’s top political advisory body the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

“This has actualised the people-based political ideology and the superiority of our nation’s socialist system.”

Guo made the remarks at a news conference ahead of the “two sessions” – the country’s biggest annual political meetings, which begin in Beijing on Friday.

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SCMP Explains: The ‘two sessions’ – China’s most important political meetings of the year

He had been asked if the tough Covid-19 strategy may need to be adjusted to reduce rising economic costs and disruptions to global exchanges.

Guo said new waves of the pandemic in “some developed countries” had seen a high number of severe cases and fatalities and health care systems had been overwhelmed.