The changes that Covid-19 brought to Chinese society

BEIJING: More than a year after the Coronavirus epidemic outbreak began in Central China’s Wuhan city capital of Hubei Province, no country in the world has seen any change. A vivid example of this is China.

The alarming rise in the number of local corona patients in China has taken the world by surprise. But despite China’s high vigilance, coronavirus infections are still occurring in some parts of China, with people entering China from abroad.

Now the areas in the far north of Heilongjiang Province and Hebei Province of China have been declared as high-risk areas and are being treated and tested free of charge. Locals in the area have been strictly restricting to travel to other places and people from outside the area.

People in the capital city of Beijing and other parts of the country are still reeling from the onset of asymptomatic infections. However, now that the Chinese government has reintroduced policy rules for health vigilance, and it is confident that China will bring it back to zero.

Amid the Coronavirus epidemic, the world learned many new things from Chinese society, and China became the world center. Although the results looked fantastic in early times, now except in China and a few other countries, the epidemic has become even more devastating after the government and the people’s patience loosened in most countries. Nepal is also a vivid example of this.

Along with the terror of the Covid-19 pandemic, most countries, including the USA, China, UK, Russia, Japan, India, are insisting on developing a vaccine against this disease. Dozens of Chinese pharmaceutical companies and research centers are currently developing the Covid-19 vaccine. Sino-Pharm, Sino-vac, and others are getting finalized permission to administer the vaccine in case of emergency.

According to a statement issued by the Chinese Ministry of Health in December 2020, in the first phase, health workers, airport staff, pilots and hostesses, public transport staff, returning nationals, and expatriates will be vaccinated, while others will be vaccinated in the next phase.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s recent visits to various African countries and ASEAN countries such as Burma, Brunei, Indonesia, and the Philippines indicate that China is now putting more emphasis on vaccine diplomacy. At the Virtual Conference of Foreign Ministers of China, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in July 2020, China pledged to make the Covid-19 vaccine available to Nepal and other countries after its successful testing. However, after the sudden change in Nepal’s political arena, China seems to be in a dilemma as to what strategy to adopt towards Nepal at this time.

The coronavirus has had the most indirect impact on the Chinese market as various supply networks have disrupted after almost all countries tightened access to preventing the epidemic. Chinese goods account for a large share of world trade, especially in the textile and mobile manufacturing sectors.

The trade war between China and the United States, which began in the first week of July 2018, took a more serious turn after the Corona epidemic began. As a result, some Chinese technology companies, such as Huawei, TikTok, WeChat, AliPay, Xiaomi, etc., which have recently challenged the US technology market, have been banned from doing business in the US market by the Trump-led government. The impact was on the business community and students directly involved in Sino-US activities.

Similarly, in the border dispute between China and India, the two countries’ troops clashed in the Galvan Valley, forcing the Xi-led government through the tense situation. In response, the Indian government has shut down many Chinese apps and impose restrictions on the import from china, leading to frustration and losses from India, which China considers its largest market. Many Chinese began to pay attention to Indian society. The obvious example is that many Chinese universities have been focusing research on India.

The government has also announced relief to many small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and traders to keep the country’s economy afloat after the demand for Chinese goods in the world market was lower than before.
Although it has some loss in the economy due to Covid-19, it has created a comfortable environment for the people by emphasizing that wasn’t much priority list before. The use of the internet for information and communication technology phenomenon changed dramatically. Earlier, online classes were not given much priority in the formal education sector as school and university. Nowadays, it has become almost common to study at home through the internet.

Fearing that the global coronavirus would re-emerge in China, most people are still residing in the house except for urgent work. As a result, the ordering of daily necessities online has reached an all-time high, and the culture of enjoying a virtual life at home has also increased. The majority of the employees working in the cargo company became very busy. Most of the hotels and restaurants here are quiet with no people, but there is a large presence of employees outside the company who deliver food from various restaurants.

In the online app used to buy goods, people often broadcast live streams with providing relevant information about goods and prices to the customers, and put links can be paid. When the customers want to find out about new goods or items, People know about it by watching the video and buying more and more.

It has also developed a new business system that provides services both offline and online. It has also made arrangements to provide various emergency services from a single app or platform in collaboration with several companies.

The cinema world of China has also brought to a more modern model. As a result, the number of people for watching movies, tele-serial, entertainment, and other programs through online apps and websites has suddenly increased to optimum level.

The Chinese government has been emphasizing to develop a social-mental health care system to address the coronavirus epidemic that impacted people, which directly or indirectly affects the general trends of people, especially in mental illness.

Schools, universities, and other officials have made it mandatory to mention their health details daily before noon through apps. It is also a mandatory rule to either scan QR codes in the city health app or write your information before entering a university or in a metro station, shopping mall, or other public places that you have not been with the coronavirus.

To reduce the people’s crowds in a tourist spot or in-hospital treatment, they can only visit after booking a ticket online in advance.

As the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year approaches, for reducing to get an infection in travel, the Ministry of Health has issued a mandatory rule for anyone returning to hometown, have to show their Covid-19 test negative report before entering in public transport, and will also have to self-quarantine for two weeks after reaching to home. And people have to conduct the Covid-19 test there again.

It is not too late for other countries to learn from China’s health care policy and regulations to eradicate the epidemic. Let’s hope the human world will defeat Covid-19 soon.

Both authors are studying PhD in China.