China’s Workforce Returns to Office

Mask-wearing commuters in Beijing and Shanghai, China’s two largest cities, are crowding roads and public transport as workers return to factories and offices after tough “Zero-COVID” measures were dropped.

Following years of harsh anti-Coronavirus curbs, President Xi Jinping scrapped the country’s Zero-COVID policy in response to widespread protests and a widening COVID outbreak. The containment measures had slowed the $17 trillion economy to its lowest growth rate in nearly 50 years, disrupting global supply chains and trade in the process.

Now, there are signs that life is returning to normal. Subway trains in Beijing and Shanghai were packed on Monday, while some major traffic arteries in the two cities were filled with slow-moving cars as residents commuted to work.

It follows the first signs of a return to normal over the weekend as the number of trips to recreational spots in the southern city of Guangzhou increased by 132% from last weekend. 

China is the last major country to move toward treating COVID as endemic, but must now endure the pain of delaying its policy change for as long as it did. Analysts say China’s economy will suffer further in the short term, as the COVID wave spreads toward manufacturing areas and workforces fall sick, before bouncing back next year.

It is expected that big name companies like Tesla and Apple will return their China operations to full capacity after welcome signs of returning workers mean that production can return to “normal” levels.