Success and Challenges: China’s State Capacity of Popular Mobilization in the COVID-19 Pandemic ()
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world into
chaos and disturbed almost all normality in people’s daily lives. Furthermore,
this global pandemic of health crises has also put governments at tests;
whether or not COVID can be prevented, contained, and controlled has become a
pressing issue for governments of different countries worldwide. As the situation
develops, different counties have also demonstrated distinctively different
practices and methods on how to handle the health crisis, ranging from strict
elimination controls to the attempt of herd immunity. Surprising to many,
China, being the first country that experienced the hit of COVID, has turned
out to be one of the few that successfully contained the spread of the virus
within its large population. Although some of China’s practice during the
pandemic has been criticized for violating human rights and privacies, it is
undeniable that the country did perform well in containing the spread of COVID,
especially in 2020
(Serikbayeva
et al., 2021). However, global health governance and pandemic management cannot rely on
only a few countries for problem-solving. As we gradually enter what is known
as the post-pandemic world, a series
of new issues and challenges also began to emerge, even for countries with
fewer COVID cases, like China. Under a qualitative design, this paper aims to
examine and analyze China’s success in the early stages of the pandemic, in
terms of state capacity and the use of popular mobilization. Then, this paper
would like to discuss and predict some of the challenges that China is facing
or likely to face with its zero-tolerance policies in the post-pandemic world.
Share and Cite:
Li, K. (2022) Success and Challenges: China’s State Capacity of Popular Mobilization in the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Chinese Studies,
11, 68-78. doi:
10.4236/chnstd.2022.112006.