– “Whatever they do in China, almost certainly would not be put up with in the U.K. or France or most ordinary European countries”
I think that if people in Europe etc. experienced the Chinese method of controlling this pandemic, they’d choose it outright. Everything is open, and people don’t need to worry. Each lockdown affects only one city at a time, and they last days not months. Most people in the West don’t even know because our news media barely report from China, but covid is under control for nearly a fifth of the world’s population.
Well over a year ago some of the initial Chinese lockdowns were quite brutal, but most weren’t – the national government delegated social restrictions to local authorities, and some were more authoritarian than others. And there was also provision for the people – a massive emergency distribution operation brought food and household supplies to the end of every street. And since then there has been no massive ongoing oppression in China to keep the pandemic under control – because there doesn’t need to be, because they act fast whenever there’s an outbreak.
The Australian government monitors China very closely because China is the locally dominant superpower, so they saw China’s method and applied it in Australia, where it has been highly successful.