Strong “COVID Zero” Policy Drives Foreigners to Leave China: “It's a Complete Disaster”

Colin Chan spent more than a decade building his life in China, but the changing Covid norms and the five weeks of quarantine convinced this Singaporean that the time had come to leave the country.

China's reluctance to give in to its strict zero-Covid policy is accelerating the exit of foreigners from the world's second economy, and business groups are warning that unpredictable regulations are scaring away expatriates.

When Chan returned to China from Singapore at the end of February, he was prepared for a long quarantine in Shanghai before he could head to Beijing, as direct international flights to the capital are greatly reduced because of Covid.

But within days of arriving in Beijing, she was told to stay home for another two weeks, with a device installed on her door that sounded an alarm if it opened. “The restrictions seemed to change all the time,” said Chan, who left China this month after completing these consecutive quarantines.

It is part of a wave of expatriates who have left or are considering leaving China.

More than 80 percent of companies surveyed by the US Chamber of Commerce last month said that China's anti-virus policies had affected its ability to attract or retain foreign personnel. And the British Chamber said Wednesday that business risk was “at the highest level seen since 2020″, when the virus was spreading rapidly in China during the initial phase of the pandemic.

China's strategy of sudden shutdowns, tight travel restrictions and lengthy quarantines largely kept the virus at bay during the first two years of the Covid crisis, and allowed people to maintain a semblance of normal life.

But the rapidly spreading Omicron variant shook this approach, as authorities rushed to contain outbreaks with a rapidly changing patchwork of restrictions that tested even the most experienced expatriates.

More than one-third of companies surveyed by the American Chamber in March said their foreign staff had been reduced by at least 10% due to Covid restrictions since the start of the pandemic.

“A crazy direction”

Nowhere is it more evident than in Shanghai, whose 25 million inhabitants are in full swing under a weeks-long lockdown that has seen food shortages, scattered protests and an online flow of vitriol.

The cosmopolitan economic power has a large community of foreigners, some 164,000, according to census data published last year. They work in various sectors, from technology and finance to teachers in international schools. But there are signs that even the most resistant may decide to leave.

A longtime British resident in Shanghai told AFP that he planned to repatriate over concerns that the latest blockade would usher in a “really crazy direction” in virus policies. “Zero-Covid is like a belief now, a really fervent belief,” he added, requesting anonymity as they had not informed their employer of their plans. “It doesn't really matter that Covid isn't that serious (now)... We have to get to zero.”

The lockdown measures “will leave their mark in the long run,” warned Jens Hildebrandt, of the subsidiary of the German Chamber of Commerce in North China.

Strict entry controls mean that some multinationals have been struggling for months to incorporate new specialists while others leave.

This adds to the problems of the supply chain.

In a recent letter to the Council of State of China, seen by AFP, the European Chamber warned that Omicron poses challenges that apparently cannot be overcome with “the old toolbox of mass testing and isolation.”

“The social and economic costs... to achieve this are increasing rapidly,” the letter said. “This is also having an unfortunate impact on China's image to the rest of the world.”

Representatives of foreign business groups met last week with Trade Minister Wang Wentao to discuss the problems facing companies, but it is not clear that there will be a rapid easing of the measures.

A “total disaster”

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday at the Boao Forum in Davos that “hard work” is still needed to control the virus. The Communist Party says its response to the pandemic has helped to avoid public health crises that have occurred in other countries.

But it has also left many exhausted.

The closure of Shanghai has been a “complete disaster,” said Rory Grimes, 40, who has lived in China for nine years.

This British educational consultant has been sleeping in a makeshift bed for days since he tested positive for the virus. It is housed in a school classroom that has been converted into a mass quarantine facility.

“You don't feel like you're coming to a place to be treated... There are no medical facilities here,” he told AFP. “It's about goals (zero COVID) rather than logic.”

(With information from AFP/by Beiyi Seow and Matthew Walsh)

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