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The pandemic is well controlled in China. Hardly any new infection, just a few restrictions. However, when new cases arise, people react without regard for their rights.
By Steffen Wurzel, ARD-Studio Shanghai
In nightclubs in major Chinese cities, people are dancing again, like before the Covid 19 pandemic. Like here in Shanghai last weekend. People come out again, the stores are full. From a purely statistical point of view, the risk of infection is very low in the most populous country in the world. The official number of new infections each day is usually in the single digit range. Most of them are so-called imported cases, that is, Chinese who have returned from abroad.
At the entrance of some restaurants, in the authorities, bank branches and hospitals, the temperature is often still measured, but otherwise everything returns to normal in China. Stores, malls, restaurants and gyms – almost everything reopens, schools and universities anyway.
“My life has felt reasonably normal again since late March / early April,” says a 39-year-old man from Shanghai. “I only put the mask on when it gets crowded around me. So whenever there’s jostling somewhere.
Sanitary code and patchwork quilt
“When you go by subway, you definitely have to wear a mask because the air cannot circulate well there,” says a Shanghai beautician. “We still have to measure the temperature or show the health code on the phone when we go out, in pubs, clubs or karaoke, etc. But that’s fine with me, I’m used to it now.”
The health code the 40-year-old is talking about is generated with a smartphone app. It has been ubiquitous to people in China since the beginning of the Covid crisis. The application calculates a personal risk based on the location and data of the wireless network: green, yellow or red. Without the application and without the green code, you will no longer be able to move in China. As a result, authorities can track who is, where, where and when, even better than before.
You usually need a green code, especially at train stations, airports, and highway toll stations. Bottom line: as long as you move across city and provincial borders within China. There is no uniform Corona app in China, on the contrary: there is a digital patchwork quilt. All provincial governments, all city administrations, are confused. The mutual trust of the Chinese authorities is obviously not that great.
Data protection and fundamental rights do not influence
If several infections are confirmed in situ somewhere in China these days, then the excitement is great. When two new cases were known a few days ago in the city of Manzhouli, in the extreme north of the country, the news program deserved wide coverage.
Mass tests are usually organized on-site. Hundreds of thousands or several million people are tested for the corona virus in a few days. The affected cities will be largely isolated from the rest of the country during the period.
Many large-scale tests and constant monitoring of contacts – these are the most important means of the Chinese authorities in the fight against the virus. Staff and money are irrelevant. Then there are the external borders almost completely closed. Plus, it’s crucial: data protection and basic personal rights play no role in China’s dictatorship. The authorities create digital movement profiles of people, use the images from surveillance cameras and do not have to take into account the rule of law. Unlike Europe, there are no public debates: neither on the corona measures, nor on the origin of the pandemic.
