BEIJING: After securing an upper hand in its all-out confrontation with the novel coronavirus on home turf, China is warily repositioning itself to fight the economic fallouts of the outbreak already declared as a pandemic.
In stark contrast to the rapid spread elsewhere in the world, the virus spread has been basically contained in China, with new risks largely coming from imported cases. The National Health Commission said it received reports of 15 new confirmed cases on the mainland, among which six were imported cases.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, China has prioritized the health of people from home and abroad and taken stringent measures to contain the spread of the virus at the expense of short-term economic gains.
Flexibility and agility are what China has learned from its tough fight with the ferocious virus. Shortly before the World Health Organization declared the outbreak as a pandemic, China’s State Council unveiled new measures to support foreign trade and investment in case the increasingly severe situations overseas might further weigh down global industrial chains.
The measures in the pipeline include a shorter negative list of foreign investment and more foreign trade loans from financial institutions.
During his Tuesday inspection of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated that the epidemic will not undermine the fundamentals of China’s steady and long-term sound economic development despite short-term economic repercussions.
In a speech at a teleconference on Feb. 23, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed the importance of coordinating the prevention and control of the epidemic and economic and social development.
While ensuring sufficient epidemic prevention and control, resumption of work and production in certain regions has a bearing on solid material supply to contain the epidemic, completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, China’s opening up and global economic stability, among others, said Xi.
Xi demanded detailed steps to keep the economy stable, including category-based and region-specific work and production resumption, enhanced macro policy adjustment, doubled-down efforts on poverty alleviation and boosting employment, stepping up agriculture production, ensuring people’s livelihood, as well as stabilizing foreign trade and investment.
– The Daily Mail-People’s Daily News exchange item
