Zero-COVID-19 at All Costs: Chronicle of China

The last country to keep a Zero-COVID approach was China, and it did so with militant force. Most prominently, the domestic vaccine supply was ineffective against the variants. Other political reasons are also at play with this policy approach, but at the heart of it is the use of pressure and stigma to enforce discipline in health policy in the country. The chapter looks at how far China took the Zero-COVID approach to overlook most, if not all, accommodations. It discusses why China took this approach and how it played out in foreign relations through foreign influence, notably with the five-eye nations.