NUNZIUM

Just a month ago, China faced rising socioeconomic pressure due to rigid restrictions against Covid. Lockdowns were frequently in place to limit the virus spread and maintain the sanitary situation under control. However, such measures' economic and social costs have been incredibly high, so the government has recently decided to ease the grip on the virus. The National Health Commission announced that the management of COVID-19 will be downgraded from Class A to Class B from January 8. It means that there will be no more quarantine for people entering the country, and there will be no isolation of COVID-19 cases and the designation of high-risk areas. The government will gradually resume the entry and exit of passenger transport through water and land ports. International passengers coming into the country should still take a nucleic acid test 48 hours before departure. It is worth noting that most countries already have similar measures in place for months. However, immunization in the Chinese population is very low, and most Chinese people have never come in contact with the virus. For this reason, significant pressure on hospitals is already taking place and is expected to grow. The World Health Organization expressed concern about reports of severe disease in China. Around Baoding and Langfang outside Beijing, hospitals have run out of intensive care beds and staff as severe cases surge. Several countries, including Italy, Japan, India and US, are already implementing restrictions for all inbound travellers from China, who now need to show a negative molecular test to travel. The reaction of the Chinese government to such rules is of disappointment, accusing Western countries of disproportionate and inappropriate response to a crisis that, they say, is under control and managed based on a comprehensive analysis. In the meantime, the European and US administrations justify the restrictions with fear of new variants. Every new infection offers a chance for the coronavirus to mutate, and the virus is spreading rapidly in a country with over 1.4 billion people. International relations are also under pressure due to the increasing intensity of the Taiwan crisis. New Chinese military drills came after US President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which marked the first time the US government will finance weapons for the island of Taiwan. The intensity of the drills surpassed those in August. They showed that the Chinese army could organize large-scale exercises repeatedly and at any time. To make things even worse, at the same time, China and Russia were holding joint naval drills in the East China Sea, proving the capability of the Chinese to conduct multiple major military activities in various regions simultaneously. Not the best premises for the upcoming year 2023, in which, hopefully, major powers will learn to collaborate instead of continuously raising international tension.