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Business Daily: China's Covid nightmare: Can Beijing bounce back?

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China and Covid: What happens now?

12/01/2023 GMT

China's Covid nightmare: Can Beijing bounce back?

BBC World Service - Business Daily, China's Covid nightmare: Can Beijing bounce back?

As borders open, we ask how much of a turning point this is for the Chinese economy.

China has this week reopened its borders for the first time in nearly three years. There have been scenes of joy and relief for many Chinese citizens after years of isolation. 

Ed Butler asks whether this is a turning point, as some are describing. What are the longer term economic threats for the so-called engine of global growth? And how does that impact the rest of the world?

Ed speaks to two young Chinese professionals - one in Beijing and one in Shanghai, who are feeling a mixture of relief and concern about the current situation.

George Magnus is a research associate at Oxford University’s China Centre - he tells Ed that the current Covid infection wave could spread right across the country, to smaller cities and rural areas.

It's difficult to get the true economic picture of what's happening in China, but Shehzad Qazi, managing director of the China Beige Book, the biggest private data collection network on China, says growth turned negative last year, with demand crashing and factories forced to close down.

Presenter/producer: Ed Butler

(Photo: A woman at an airport in China after restrictions were lifted. Credit: EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

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