Zero COVID Lockdowns Intensify, Economic Outlook Worsens

With dogged determination, Xi Jinping and the CCP continue to ratchet down on Zero COVID lockdown protocols in an effort to stem yet another wave of COVID-19 cases sweeping China.

The southern city of Guangzhou, the current epicentre of China's COVID fight, reported 2,824 new local cases for Nov. 10, the fourth day in which infections exceeded 2,000.

Driving the infections were cases in the populous district of Haizhu, which on Friday declared a hard lockdown until Sunday after days of widening restrictions and curbs.

"All residents are required to stay at home," the district government said in a statement. "Only one person in each household is allowed to buy daily necessities on a staggered schedule."

All public transit in the district of 1.8 million people is also suspended, and mandatory PCR tests will be administered to "every household and every individual", according to the statement.

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province, the most economically significant province in China. With increasing numbers of its residents being placed under lockdown, China’s already battered economy is certain to take still more body blows.

China’s official Manufacturing PMI metrics show the manufacturing sectors of the Chinese economy have slipped yet again into contraction.

The Services PMI figure also shows contraction, after having been declining steadily for the past few months.

Zero COVID is a likely factor behind declining new orders at China’s factories, a trend which will have knock-on effects over the next several months—fewer new orders today mean fewer goods produced tomorrow.

China’s economy has no hope of recovery so long as the Chinese people are subject to random, arbitrary, and ineffective lockdowns. There is no stimulus measure to counter preventing people from working.