This was written sometime in 2021. Looking back at this, some of it has aged badly. Nobody could predict how things would unfold in the following years. I stand by some of the things I said here but as later instalments of ‘COVID in China’ will make clear, this was far from the complete story.
After my brief yet welcome stint back in the UK, I returned to China in the midst of lockdown. I could not get into my girlfriend’s apartment without showing my passport to the building security, as well as reporting where I’d been and checking my temperature. The first restrictions had arrived.
Covid began here, but Covid all but left in a shorter time than any other country in the world (pure guess). Rules were observed, masks were mandatory, signing in and temperature checks in all public buildings were mandatory, measures in every workplace were followed until the government inspected and slowly eased them. People conformed and wore their masks. All people wanted was their normal lives back.
In this society, the government comes down so hard on any kind of dissent that any opposition to ideas and rules is dealt with and silenced. However, it is because of these circumstances that China largely returned to normal by Summer 2020. Electric speed considering this was around the time that Europe was being ravaged by the virus.
These are the benefits of a totalitarian world. Compliance is not an option. Many people are grateful for this. They don’t even perceive the oppressive nature of the regime, this is exactly why it’s successful. If the government can deliver in times of fear, they only continue to prove the success of the party and maintain its status.
It’s impressive how well managed the battle against Covid was fought whilst simultaneously being incredibly simple. If you don’t wear a mask, you can’t use public transport. If you can’t provide your health code (a personal code on your phone that flags any brush with COVID you might have had) you can’t come to this supermarket. Grey areas don’t exist, comply or stay home.
I can’t help but look at this system with some admiration. Compliance for the Chinese seems to manifest culturally to an extent. If you take off your mask on public transport, people will move away from you. Why should I get sick because you are too selfish to wear a mask? Culturally, the UK cannot compete in this area. There seems to be an instinctive desire to push back against authority.
Our countries function differently and our head space operates on a different system. Yet, if all major British airports took measures early on, could a difference have been made?
Maybe not, the virus circumnavigated the planet in less than a year. Masks and temperature checks would never have been enough. But it makes me wonder if lives could have been spared had a quick-thinking government made an anticipative decision early to screen for the virus.
China was up and running by Summer 2020. The situation differed slightly region to region but in Chongqing: bars, restaurants, even airports, all of it was back to normal but for a sea of blue, surgical masks. There was, however the small matter of the borders of the country being effectively sealed, making entry and exit into the country an almighty arse ache.
What’s interesting is that a year later, September 2021, I’m STILL not allowed on public transport without a mask. Still my health code is checked when I leave the city. Vaccination is pushed hard. Covid has almost been eradicated from the mini continent and yet some measures STILL remain in place.
The Chinese government is a tyrannical machine that has terrible implications for the gargantuan society it rules over. Yet, if the British government had acted as incisively, some lives may not have been lost. I look at the two countries and how they handled the manic early stages of the pandemic and cannot score it any other way than a win for China.
I calculate that I may have been in lockdown for less time than the majority of humans on the planet. I slid out of China before it was enacted. I returned when restrictions were manageable. I have not been to the UK since; China was more or less back to normal so soon that the period of home confinement was relatively short. Travelling was off the agenda, but other than that I lived in a bubble world that was turning at normal speed once again whilst observing the rest of the world grinding to a halt. A halt that I can barely empathise with due to my much shorter lockdown life.
