Several multinationals have suspended operations as China extends its Covid lockdowns – one of the largest since the pandemic began.
Tens of millions of people across the country are facing restrictions, including throughout Jilin Province and the tech hub of Shenzhen, as authorities report record numbers of cases.
Affected are among others Toyota, Volkswagen and the Apple supplier Foxconn.
The lockdowns have raised concerns that key supply chains could be disrupted.
China on Tuesday reported a record high of more than 5,000 cases, most of them in Jilin.
All 24 million residents of the northeastern province were quarantined on Monday. It is the first time China has restricted an entire province since Wuhan and Hebei went into lockdown early in the pandemic.
Jilin residents have been banned from moving, and anyone wishing to leave the province must apply for a police permit.
It came a day after the southern city of Shenzhen’s 12.5 million residents went into lockdown for five days, with all buses and subways grounded.
On Tuesday, authorities also imposed immediate lockdowns in the city of Langfang, which borders the capital Beijing, and in Dongguan in southern Guangdong Province.
Businesses in many of the affected regions have been ordered to close or have their employees work from home unless they are delivering essential services like food, utilities or other necessities.
Foxconn, which makes iPhones for Apple, suspended its operations in Shenzhen on Monday and said the date for production to resume there was “recommended by the local government.”
“Due to our diversified manufacturing bases in China, we have adjusted the production line to minimize the potential impact,” the BBC said in a statement. The plant in Zhengzhou – the world’s largest iPhone factory – remains open as the city was unaffected by the restrictions.
Toyota, which has closed its factory in the city of Changchun in Jilin province, did not announce a timeline for resuming business. The Japanese automaker told the BBC the move was taken to consider the “impact of supplier operations” and the “safety and protection of employees and related parties”.
German automaker Volkswagen also shut down operations in Changchun and said production of Volkswagen and Audi cars and their components was “affected” but hoped to reopen its plant on Thursday.
It feels like China has taken a step backwards. Two years back. On the beginnings of the outbreak that first appeared here.
Drastic measures are being imposed – once again – on a large scale to try to contain the virus. An entire province was locked down.
Jilin’s lockdown is similar to Hubei’s in early 2020 in many ways; the area of China where it all began.
Shenzhen, the world’s major tech hub (where your iPad was most likely made), is also a city in lockdown.
Shanghai – as I write this – home to 24 million people, is an edgy place. All schools are closed, children are learning online, people are increasingly working from home.
Some compounds that people live in enforce strict rules on who is allowed in. Deliveries will be sprayed again with disinfectant at the gates.
This is all part of ongoing efforts to uphold/retain/regain China’s “dynamic zero Covid” strategy.
A goal reinforced by the mass rollout of China’s home-made vaccines. A goal hugely aided by the effective closure of China’s borders.
But now a goal that is clearly undermined by the Omicron variant.
So far, China has seen relatively fewer cases of Covid due to its strict zero-Covid policy, in which it resorts to rapid lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions when clusters have emerged.
However, the rapid portability of the Omicron variant has made it increasingly difficult to stick with this approach.
Since the beginning of the year, China has reported more domestically transmitted cases than in all of 2021.
Leading Chinese infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong called the recent outbreaks “the most difficult time in the last two years in the fight against Covid” and that they are still in the “early stages of an exponential increase” in a widely shared online post Media.
He added that while it is necessary for China to maintain its zero-Covid strategy to control the outbreaks.
Additional reporting by Annabelle Liang.
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