China Descends Further Into Crisis With Megacity Lockdown
Markets warily eyed a bevy of inauspicious developments as September dawned, including a new COVID lockdown in China, where residents of Chengdu, home to more than 21 million people, will be subjected to mass testing beginning immediately.
"The current situation is extremely complex and severe," local officials said. "All residents will stay at home, and non-residents of the community will not be allowed to enter," a notice read. "There will be no crowds or gatherings in the community, and each
This all sounds unsustainable to me. At some point something has to give and Xi will pay the price for putting his people through this pain, unnecessarily.
China is absolutely out of control. Between the banking and property crisis and the handling for Covid, they’re in dire straits. They need to replace Xi. Practically speaking, they need to reach out to the world for help with Covid vaccines. If they do so, it will be an incredible business opportunity for western vaccine producers.
I’ll be curious if the CCP has the backbone to admit their failure. But actually, they don’t have to. Xi can be their scapegoat.
Its no accident that the lockdowns are imposed in the same province they have severe shortage of electricity and the demand for electric power is highest in the summer heat. So is the lockdown really due to the virus or is that just a convenient and plausible reason.
I’m not sure there’s a conspiracy here. And you seem to be convinced there is, so I don’t know that there’s much utility in trying to argue the point. When you start by stating something as a fact (i.e., “It’s no accident that…”), there’s no point in asking a question (i.e., “…is the lockdown really due?”) one sentence later. You appear to have made up your mind about it. Which is fine, but I’m just not sure why state something as unequivocally true only to turn around and pose it as a question. Either you’re sure or you aren’t.
Looks like incoming recessions about ready to occur/already happening in Europe and China. The US is probably not too far behind.
In the 4th quarter, S&P 500, which gets 30% of sales from international markets, is not going to be looking good. Commodities may have already peaked.
This is definitely not the “fun part” of what I signed up for. Luckily, I know how to be Swabian.
Here in Phoenix the Covid infection rate has retreated a bit (8666 in the last week) but it has been between ~1200 and ~2200 a day all year.
When combatting the effects of climate change by burning coal becomes harder because of climate change, maybe it’s some kind of Climate Minsky Moment.
Chongqing now on flood alert . . . not sure how serious that is. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/heat-weary-chongqing-sichuan-now-flood-alert-amid-torrential-rain-2022-08-29/
The drones worked!
As insane as China’s stringent Covid response has been, I am amazed at just how inured we’ve become. I know more people right now with Covid that at any other single point during this pandemic. These people are all vaxed and at least single boosted, have mostly mild symptoms and probably none will die. But 400 people/day are still dying here – I’m not arguing there’s much we can do about it, but just surprised how it’s become “shruggable.” 400 people/day = 150k/yr. Meh.
When I learned that 58,000 or so Americans died in Vietnam, that seemed like an insane number. It became even more insane when I lived in DC when the Vietnam Memorial went up. I remember walking those angled lengths of marble, seeing more names than I could ever read, and not being able to fathom any of it. In the very worst MONTHS of the Vietnam war, 400-600 Americans were killed in action. Now we are getting roughly that amount in DAILY Covid fatalities and we’re complaining about overbooked flights and restaurants, or Covid fatigue (not the symptom, but hearing about it).
Maybe we’re just tougher now. Or, maybe the value of life has diminished. If you’re looking for one, I think there’s your bear market.
Great points Furious One. GOP messaging has prevailed = keeping businesses open and running is the most important, perhaps only, goal.
Hello, FuriousA –
As far as I would be concerned, China is making its own bed. I have no sympathy, especially if they don’t change their policies.
Americans fought hard in tough conditions in Vietnam for almost six years. We lost 58,000+, But even a loss of one is difficult to take.
In WW2, during the three years and nine months Americans fought overseas, 405,000 were killed in Asia and Europe.
It’s all too much. Obviously, it’s a good thing to avoid war. But we have enemies, and sometimes we must respond to them.