Between the lines of these new policies, my take is that the concern for foreign arrivals is now not in bringing fresh infections to spread, but rather not needlessly burdening local health care system with sick foreigners. Perhaps not so much a problem in first tier cities, more so along Yunnan borders for example.
Recent news is that starting January 8 (2023) quarantine for international arrivals will not be needed at all.
SCMP reports that China is going to scrap quarantines and reopen borders on January 8. Maybe take with grain of salt, but anyway.
Quote:
China will reopen borders and abandon quarantine after it downgrades its treatment of Covid-19 on January 8.
The decision is the country’s last step in shedding three years of zero-Covid and pivoting to living with the virus.
Covid-19 has been managed as a top category A infectious disease since 2020, putting it on par with bubonic plague and cholera.
[...]
But three sources from provincial health authorities and hospitals in Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangsu said they were notified by the National Health Commission on Sunday, asking them to prepare for the downgrade to category B management from January 8.
My wife had the fever (max 38.8) one morning in last weekend, but during the day the fever disappeared and since then there has been just some cough, even less than with regular flu I'd say. But she used home test in Monday to confirm it is Covid.
For rest of us in the household, our 5yr threw up in the Monday evening (the cause could have been something else) and the grandmother (who is not vaccinated) has had some coughs, but neither has been feverish, achy or anything else at all. I've had no symptoms at all yet.
I'm not sure if could be a factor, but both me and our son had regular cold infection less than 2 weeks ago (tested negative for Covid), so our defenses could have been readily up for the battle even if the virus is different. Keeping fingers crossed.
With the big boat changing course, I figure we can start new topic on the theme as well.
Anyone sick yet?
My other half had fever today, after her colleque got sick couple of days before. We are assuming it's CoVid, but apparently it's completely voluntary to confirm that or do anything else special either. It's just like flu now, here too.
Her training school was opened week or so ago, but student attendance has been <5%, so they closed shop for the cold spell voluntarily.
And that seems to be the story now. No restrictions from the up, but people taking voluntary steps perhaps even more efficiently than under previous scheme, and staying home. Or maybe it's just the cold.
No results found.
In interview, Yunnan Party chief stresses ending poverty
Posted by@Geogramatt: "Why the rush? Let this generation pass peacefully. The young all want to leave anyway."
I would think that it makes China look bad (and that's what the leadership cares, despite what their actions sometimes come through as), if there are so many elder people left behind in undeveloped rural homes.
Combine this with left behind children, who often are seen sharing those poor living conditions with their grandparents (if even that).. If the elderly are migrated to better housing closer to even minimal services, then so would their grandchildren - and that's for the future, right now.
In interview, Yunnan Party chief stresses ending poverty
Posted byAs of late, Chinese pro-party commentators have repeatedly mentioned that Deng never said that it is glorious to be rich for everyone - they argue that Deng always meant for select few to become rich first, and rest later.
If much of China growth, or at least opening the potential to it, can be attributed to reforms that Deng initiated, then just as much of the so-called economic injustice (or relative poverty) can be attributed to those same political decisions - not so much people unintentionally falling off the wagon of development and economic prosperity, as is case in some western countries.
Secondly, the culture of shared poverty being the glorious thing (that the previous generations were forced to), would not have disappeared over night.
I have witnessed the internal conflict in some elderly rural residents in Yunnan, torn between being angry for not getting to enjoy the fruits of China's growth on one hand, and not accepting the steps that would be needed to pick the fruits on the other hand.
Bureaucratic declaration limits Yunnan countryside fun
Posted byI was at a rural funeral in Yunnan last autumn, and throughout the event there was a bookkeeper registering and writing down all donations.'
Back then I understood that the family had purchased the feast for a certain price, and this communal bookkeeper was subtracting the payment for that from all those donations.
But in light of this article, I wouldn't be surprised if he served some administrative role as well.
Migrant workers receive bricks in lieu of pay
Posted byChinese state does have some economic muscle, and tradition of state-owned enterprising. I think that the state should jump in here.
They could confistace this kind of non-monetary resources (like bricks, or frozen french fries), pay market price to the employees, and then sell the goods back to the market (or donate to charity) through it's own channels.
But I guess there is more bucks in cigarattes and oil.
Migrant workers receive bricks in lieu of pay
Posted by@alienew: "drive investors to go to places where they can get away"
Well, technically it would drive them away to places where they can get away with unpaid wages in some other ways than being beaten to death.
Preferably the alternative would be a more civilized way to lose face than doing so concretically.
The process somewhere else would be that after 1-2 months salary is unpaid, the employees quit and contact union, which then more or less peacefully negotiates the best possible solution between the employer and the employee.
The workers can then choose better representatives, if the union-led negotiations still produce nothing but bricks as compensation for unpaid wages.
The problem in China is that if you quit, there are 10 other guys waiting to take your position regardless of how you were dealt with.
But in that scale, there is usually just 1 guy offering those positions, and if he or she is dealt with this way, there may not be another guy taking his place.