Emily
Editor, Senior Moderator
https://www.economist.com/finance-a...-vulnerable-to-the-spread-of-omicron/21806564
Finance & economics Dec 4th 2021 edition
Omicronomics
China’s economy looks especially vulnerable to the spread of Omicron
Disruptions would pose a test for economic policymakers
JACK MA, THE founder of China’s giant e-commerce platform, Alibaba, started his first web company after a visit to America in 1995. Cao Dewang, the boss of Fuyao Glass, a Chinese company made famous by the documentary “American Factory”, ventured into manufacturing after a trip to the Ford Motor Museum in Michigan. (The museum’s significance struck him only on the plane home, he told an interviewer, so he immediately booked a return flight to make a second visit.)
Travel is vital to innovation. Unfortunately what is true of business is also true of viruses. At some point on its journey around the globe the covid-19 virus re invented itself. The new Omicron variant will further entrench China’s tight restrictions on business travel. Indeed it may cause more disruption to China’s economy than to other GDP heavyweights. That is not because the virus will spread more widely in China. On the contrary. It is because the government will try so hard to stop it from doing so...
Finance & economics Dec 4th 2021 edition
Omicronomics
China’s economy looks especially vulnerable to the spread of Omicron
Disruptions would pose a test for economic policymakers
JACK MA, THE founder of China’s giant e-commerce platform, Alibaba, started his first web company after a visit to America in 1995. Cao Dewang, the boss of Fuyao Glass, a Chinese company made famous by the documentary “American Factory”, ventured into manufacturing after a trip to the Ford Motor Museum in Michigan. (The museum’s significance struck him only on the plane home, he told an interviewer, so he immediately booked a return flight to make a second visit.)
Travel is vital to innovation. Unfortunately what is true of business is also true of viruses. At some point on its journey around the globe the covid-19 virus re invented itself. The new Omicron variant will further entrench China’s tight restrictions on business travel. Indeed it may cause more disruption to China’s economy than to other GDP heavyweights. That is not because the virus will spread more widely in China. On the contrary. It is because the government will try so hard to stop it from doing so...