Tens of Trillions Spent Only on Quarantine... The Real Reason Behind China's Quarantine Abandonment Is 'Money'

27 Trillion Won Spent in Guangdong Province Over 3 Years
"Not Because of Protests, But Because of Money"

There is an analysis that the rapidly increasing quarantine costs contributed to China's recent abandonment of the zero-COVID policy.

According to a local budget report in China on the 17th, Guangdong Province, the wealthiest local government in China, spent a total of 146.8 billion yuan (approximately 27.0171 trillion won) on COVID-19 prevention over the past three years.

This amount only accounts for COVID testing, vaccination, and policy enforcement costs, excluding patient treatment and public health expenses, yet it amounts to 35% of Guangdong Province's total research and development expenditure.

Medical staff preparing equipment at a clinic in a hospital in Beijing, China.
[Photo by AP Yonhap News]

Guangdong Province stated in the report, "As one of China's major gateways with the largest population, it faced the greatest pressure in epidemic control among all provinces nationwide last year." As of 2021, Guangdong's population was 127 million, accounting for 9% of China's total population.

Other local governments also faced financial pressure due to COVID lockdown policies. Beijing spent about 30 billion yuan (approximately 5.5212 trillion won) on COVID prevention last year, and Shanghai spent 4.45 billion yuan (approximately 815 billion won) on prevention costs including for factories such as TSMC and SMIC. Fujian Province spent 13.04 billion yuan (approximately 2.4 trillion won) on prevention costs last year, a 56% increase compared to the previous year.

Residents are undergoing COVID-19 testing in a locked-down apartment in Beijing, China.
Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Earlier, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on the 8th, after the lifting of the COVID lockdown policy, that "it is difficult to eliminate the coronavirus, and social and quarantine costs are increasing."

Ultimately, although it appears that the zero-COVID policy was abolished due to 'blank paper protests' opposing the strict lockdown policy, the analysis suggests that the policy was actually abandoned because the quarantine costs became unsustainable. On the 16th (local time), the US CNN reported, "The detailed data from Guangdong Province revealed the real reasons behind the suspension of the lockdown policy."

As the prolonged lockdown policy shrinks the economy, the Chinese government’s finances have suffered a significant blow. According to CNN’s own tally, from January to October last year, when the zero-COVID policy was intensively implemented, the fiscal deficit of China's local and central governments reached 6.66 trillion yuan (approximately 1226 trillion won).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.