The second wave of the corona pandemic did not materialize in China

FFriday night in Beijing. The “Omni Space” music club is already booked at 9pm. Rock band 2econd is on stage. The party crowd huddles below. Some wear masks, some don’t. At the entrance they had to show their Corona application and leave their information when buying tickets. They don’t have to keep their distance. The number of admission tickets is limited to 75 percent of the regular maximum occupancy. This can make sense in cinemas and concert halls, for which it also applies. In music clubs, where everyone is pushed onto the stage, there is no social distancing. The Beijing authorities still allow the concert: they are sure of its cause. So far, all of China has been spared a second wave of the corona pandemic. And it seems that it will continue like this.

The stress test took place in early October. In the week after the day of the founding of the People’s Republic, the entire country was on the move. For eight days, an average of more than 60 million travelers were counted each day at train stations, airports and highways. There were music festivals in numerous cities, such as the three-day “Strawberry Festival” in Beijing with 30,000 visitors. However, there were no major new outbreaks afterward. Only 13 new infections were reported in the coastal city of Qingdao. As is customary in these cases in China, the Sars-CoV-2 test was conducted throughout the city. More than ten million people in a few days. Vacationers from other parts of the country who were in Qingdao during “Golden Week” also had to be screened. Their Corona app still showed two weeks after leaving that they had been there. “That’s why people feel safe going out and enjoying the band’s performance,” says Zuo Ye, who runs the Omni Space music club.

Zuo assumes he will soon be able to sell 100 percent of his tickets again if enough people are vaccinated against Corona. There is still no vaccine in China that is approved for general use. But the state pharmaceutical company Sinopharm has already vaccinated hundreds of thousands of Chinese as part of “emergency use”. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone that the clinical trials are not over yet. Hundreds of people lined up in Yiwu city on Saturday to be injected with the makeshift vaccine for the equivalent of 50 euros. This also contributes to the fact that many Chinese now think that they are on their way to a post-Crown era, while elsewhere the worst seems to be imminent.

Methods that would have led to the revolution in Germany

The “Omni Space” weathered the pandemic relatively well. Because the building is owned by the state, Zuo Ye received rent discounts for three months and a concessional loan. For each of his employees there was also a grant of a good 300 euros. You can make a lot of money from rock music in China. Television talent shows have helped. More and more young people are discovering live music. Instead of playing the piano, many children learn to play the guitar. The government promotes this, but the texts are subject to censorship and the authorities ensure that rockers do not develop a culture of protest.