China’s zero-Covid foot soldiers left anxious in role as social ‘buffers’, study finds

Frontline workers had to meet top-down targets despite lack of agency, while tackling public discontent with zero-Covid, researchers find

Hierarchical chain of command, intensified workloads and intense pressure on local cadres led to ‘grass- roots fatigue’, study says

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Community officials came under immense pressure when public perception of zero-Covid shifted. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:34pm, 22 Dec 2022Updated: 8:54pm, 22 Dec 2022

Community officials tasked with implementing China’s zero-Covid policy suffered from anxiety and stress in trying to balance top-down directives with a lack of authority to enforce them on the ground, a recent study has found.

The pressure of having to meet top-down targets in the face of public discontent left frontline workers facing what the study called “grass-roots fatigue”.

Zero-Covid protocol at the grass-roots level was led by party officials delegated from their regular roles to aid local pandemic management, while residents’ committees were tasked with monitoring the sick; patrolling entrances to estates under lockdown; achieving centrally set vaccination targets; and distributing essentials like food, water and face masks.

Often called the da bai or “big white” because of their white hazmat suits or personal protective equipment (PPE) – the health workers were often caught in “an impossible position”, according to the study by Xuan Qin at Shanghai’s Fudan University and Catherine Owen from the University of Exeter in Britain.

For instance, grass-roots cadres were required to meet vaccination targets set by higher authorities, but the National Health Commission ban on mandatory vaccination deprived them of “regulatory legitimacy”.

To gather their data, the researchers carried out 37 interviews with Covid-19 community workers – both party officials and local residents – across three Shanghai districts in the summer of last year.

“The leeway for street-level bureaucrats to adapt or customise decisions from above … [during such times] is very limited,” they concluded.

“The tension between the requirement for comprehensive compliance and the basic need for personal freedom is a result of top-level design, but it is experienced and negotiated at the grass-roots level.”