On the new year’s eve, Chinese President XI Jinping, at his 2023 New Year Address, extended greetings to all nationals, as well as friends and people in the world, while claiming that, since COVID-19 struck, China has prevailed over unprecedented difficulties and challenges. China has entered a new phase of COVID response, where tough challenges remain. Everyone is holding on with great fortitude, and the light of hope is right in front of us.
After three years of fighting the pandemic, the whole world is much more convinced that the virus is the common enemy of all human beings. Till now, the coronavirus is still lingering over the world, with far-reaching social, economic and political consequences in different countries, and also with its sub-variants, such as Omicron, prevalent in many countries, including China.
From the very beginning of its response against the pandemic, China has taken responsible policies on a science-based and targeted approach, by putting people and their lives above all else, and by adapting measures dynamically and proactively. It has been proved and widely recognised that China’s COVID response policies over the past three years, have realised the goal of achieving the best results at the least cost.
In the past three years, China has provided the greatest extent possible of protection to the people. China has made the best effort to protect the life and health of its 1.4 billion people, and poured all resources into treating every patient, no matter if it is its own nationals or foreigners living in the country. China has effectively responded to five global waves of COVID, and avoided widespread infections with the original strain and the Delta variant, which are relatively more pathogenic than the currently spreading variants. Globally, China has had the lowest rates of infection and mortality. Despite the pandemic, the average life expectancy in China rose from 77.93 years in 2020 to 78.2 years in 2021.
In the past three years, China has witnessed the stability of its economy and also its supply chain to the world. One of the key focuses of China’s COVID policy is to minimise the impact of the pandemic on economic and social development. With the joint efforts of the whole country, China’s economy has managed to consolidate its resilience and maintain sound fundamentals, making it a reliable driving force of global economic growth. The country’s GDP expanded at an average annual rate of 4.6% from the third quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2022, which is well above the world average, according to data released by the OECD. Besides, China has also led the world in terms of trade volume, goods production and energy production, and kept its inflation rate at a relatively low level. Chinese people’s basic livelihood was guaranteed during the pandemic. In 2022, despite a global food crisis, China secured a bumper harvest for the 19th year in a row.
