China's Zero Covid Economic Weapon

How China is using Covid as an economic weapon ?

For about a year now I have been wondering about the seemingly impeccable timing of lockdowns in China. Why is it that right before holiday shopping season in the U.S. , China starts locking down due to Covid ? Why is it that right when things start to get back on track in the West, China initiates draconian lockdown measures ? What does “Zero Covid Policy” actually mean ? Is China using this policy to punish the West and slow down the escape of companies ?

First question we must answer is, does the Chinese government actually believe that achieving the stated goal of “zero covid” is possible ? Safe to say, they aren’t stupid enough to believe that a virus can be completely irradicated in this day and age of global travel. Viruses have never been completely eliminated in the history of mankind. This goal of “zero Covid” is simply unattainable. So the question becomes, what exactly are they actually trying to accomplish ? And this is what we will dive into.

It is no secret that the post Covid global landscape is changing rapidly. The U.S. and its allies have openly stated that they will start to divest business ties from China, after Covid exposed the West’s over reliance on the Chinese manufacturing and chemicals. Companies like Apple, AirBNB, Hasboro as well as many others have already begun the Transition out of China. On the flip side, China has been selling off U.S. treasuries and dollar denominated debt at a rapid pace, as a result reducing their dependence on U.S. consumption and debt, as they surely know that the U.S. is already insolvent. From a macro economic perspective, the shift from being a creditor nation (that produces and exports) to a debtor nation (that imports and self consumes) has begun, and the transition is never easy. The U.S. had massive issues itself when we went from the worlds largest produces and exporters to a debtor nation in the 80’s. China is trying to avoid these “growing pains” and slow down the transition, while punishing the U.S. along the way. Here are a few examples of how this weapon is being used.

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Medications shortages around the world have also been a big part of their strategy. Adderall Shortage Antibiotic Shortages and the list can go on and on and on. Its not limited to the U.S. either, in many other countries the are having the same issue. Is it also a coincidence that all drugs in shortage, are sourced from China? If only someone would have warned us all that our over reliance on China would come back to haunt us

My theory here is that they are using this “zero covid policy” to slow down this transition from exporters to self consumption, because they are afraid of unemployment more than anything. And to hurt the U.S. every time the economy starts to recover. The timing of these lockdowns are not coincidence. Chinese wrote the “Art of War” they are most definitely not dumb people, they must know that their policy is unattainable. What do you guys think ? Is it just a mere coincidence ?

Economies are crashing in every country, so it's either a very strange coincidence or a lot of long-range planning has gone into it.

The last three years seem to resemble dominos falling.

a reply to: nugget1

Agreed. However, history teaches us that creditor nations typically fair much better than the debtor nations. This is simply because creditor nations are not dependent on imports as much and can always revert to self consumption. Not a easy transition either, but much easier than what the west and all debtor nations will have to face. And yes, this is a game of chess, the Chinese have been playing the long strategy for a while now. Game theory is beautiful.

It's been confounding me too. Since the Chinese strategy doesn't seem to make sense we are forced to find explanations that do.

a reply to: The GUT

Exactly, it makes no sense at all. They must know you can never get rid of a virus.

originally posted by: The GUT
It's been confounding me too. Since the Chinese strategy doesn't seem to make sense we are forced to find explanations that do.

It only make sense if they're working with other countries to jack up the supply chain. Nobody can blame their own government for starving them when it can be blamed on Chinas' handling of Covid.

All the people in Europe will be blaming Russia as they shiver in their unheated homes; not the policies pushed by another country's puppet war-mongering leader.

originally posted by: nugget1

originally posted by: The GUT
It's been confounding me too. Since the Chinese strategy doesn't seem to make sense we are forced to find explanations that do.

It only make sense if they're working with other countries to jack up the supply chain. Nobody can blame their own government for starving them when it can be blamed on Chinas' handling of Covid.

All the people in Europe will be blaming Russia as they shiver in their unheated homes; not the policies pushed by another country's puppet war-mongering leader.

Having a zero-tolerance COVID policy could mean it hit them harder than we could imagine. There could have been rumblings in the CCP. Chinese are very strict about standards and appearances, they know western sensitivities well. They could be trying to flip the script and really keep it down, as they definitely have a shadow opposition internally that would like nothing better to use COVID to break the hold of the CCP

There is an outside chance they almost lost hold of the COVID situation, both domestically and internationally last time. So now the government is petrified of losing even more business if they have another round. China definitely plays the long game, but they have lost billions financially as well as some prestige and positive attention. It's got to be even worse for them domestically.

dp

BOGO post

A couple things come to mind, is this a new virus? What if this isn't Covid, but something else from the wet market laboratory. This current China lockdown seems like November and December of 2019. They are spraying aerosol disinfectants into the air from drones as well as locking people in their homes...again.

Or since they are changing to gold backed currency wouldn't they want to try and eventually stop taking in the US dollar as payment? If they created shortages to any dollar based country it would buy them time for the switch over, they receive less and less dollars to have to dump before their switch, until they just refuse to accept the dollar anymore.

a reply to: TheLieWeLive

Very interesting points. Especially what if its not Covid but something else ? Hmmmm

a reply to: HanSolo31

When I was watching the drones spray into the air I didn't remember seeing that last time. Not that they couldn't have stepped up their game, but it made me wonder if this is even Covid.
I really hope we aren't looking at round 2 of some viral outbreak. I'm just getting use to the flu being a thing again.

a reply to: HanSolo31


Don't know what's going on either but thought this article was well worth a read (new 'expiry date' currency).



China's Digital Yuan comes with an expiration date



Also looks like China is hoarding quite a lot of food.

The PRC took a gamble. The western world was teetering under intense corruption from the top down. They only needed to give us a thump. Sadly, my Mother and my Wife were included in that thump. Worse yet, my own government (an organization I served over 20 years for) did not do a damn thing to save them. Their gamble is gonna fail, time to organize. Eradicate China!

a reply to: Weareromulas

In the past few decades China has been the recipient of 'tech transfer' almost identical to Germany pre WW2 - what's even more curious is that it's from the same families and corporations.

See Sutton.

Also some truly remarkable coincidences here regarding those families, China and Yale University.