BEIJING – China suspended in-person schooling and dining at restaurants in a district at the centre of Guangzhou, stoking concerns about the potential for disruption in the southern Chinese manufacturing hub that is home to about 19 million people.
All primary and middle schools in Haizhu district, where about 10 per cent of the city’s total population lives, halted in-person lessons from Monday.
The restrictions come more than a week after Huadu district shut entertainment venues and schools and, while a small number of neighbourhoods were allowed to ease curbs on Sunday, most of the area remains subject to control measures.
Guangzhou reported 69 new infections for Sunday.
The latest curbs coincide with the end of the Communist Party of China’s once-in-five-years congress, where President Xi Jinping reinforced the rectitude of his zero-Covid-19 policy but gave few indicators of how the strategy may play out going forward.
His appointment of Mr Li Qiang, a close ally who oversaw the two-month lockdown of Shanghai earlier this year, to No. 2 on the Politburo’s supreme Standing Committee has also clouded the outlook for any easing of the virus policy.
While Mr Li initially took a lighter-touch approach to China’s strict zero-Covid-19 policy, a surge in cases in Shanghai prompted him to seal off the city, leading to rare social unrest and causing the financial hub’s economy to shrink by almost 14 per cent in the second quarter.
Mr Li is now set to become premier in March, despite never having served as vice-premier – a prerequisite for the post for decades.
The party congress would not be the occasion for major policy changes, with a gradual relaxation of zero-Covid-19 expected to start in the second quarter of 2023, Goldman Sachs Group analysts including Andrew Tilton wrote in a report.
Policy implementation could be more efficient though, with personnel-related issues related to party roles settled, the report said.
Others have a more bullish view, with Bank of America predicting a pivot on zero-Covid-19 could happen sooner than expected.
The two conditions for Mr Xi to shift towards easing – political certainty and public support for reopening – have been met, economists wrote in a report.
There are two natural windows to act: between now and mid-November, when Mr Xi is due to visit Indonesia for the Group of 20 summit; and right after he returns and before the year end, they wrote.
Nationwide, China reported 919 new local infections, the highest since Oct 14. The north-western region of Xinjiang still accounts for most of the country’s cases, even as the tally eases from its recent high. Shaanxi province’s capital, Xi’an, which locked down some areas last week, reported 51 cases. BLOOMBERG
