China's zero-COVID policies save lives - but not livelihoods

BEIJING: China's ultra-strict COVID-19 curbs are taking a toll on businesses and jobseekers as Beijing stresses again and again the need to maintain its zero-tolerance approach to the virus, to save lives, if not livelihoods.

Since 2020, China has reported 5,226 COVID-19 fatalities among its population of 1.4 billion. In contrast, more than 1 million people have died of the disease in the United States.

Keeping a lid on China's COVID-19 death toll has come at a cost to its economy.

Beijinger Cai Xu, 36, has shut four of his five bars in Beijing and Chengdu in three years. Business was disrupted at first by temporary closures to comply with COVID-19 policies. Now, hardly a customer walks through the door.

"Since the epidemic, I've become anxious, flustered and lost, and then the bars started to close down one by one," said Cai, who in 2016 gave up his job as an architect at a state-owned enterprise to open his first establishment.

To offset the drop in walk-in customers, Cai has started live-streaming music performances at his bar to people quarantined at home, in what has been a surprise hit. For now, that will do, while Cai finds other ways to keep his remaining bar in Beijing afloat.