The Impact of China's Blockade Policy on China's Economy

Moon Jiyoung

(morganmoon@kiep.go.kr)

Research Fellow, 

Korea Institute for International Economic Policy

English Abstract

In 2022, the Chinese government set its main economic theme as "Ensuring economic stability" by setting economic growth target at "around 5.5%. However, China's "zero-covid" policy and regional lockdowns make China hard to achieve its economic growth goal. Even the Chinese government understands that zero-covid policy obviously have triggered the recent economic slowdown, they cannot give it up because zero-covid policy are related to both China's medical environment and political issues. In order to minimize the side effects of zero-covid policy, the Chinese government recently issued detailed economic stimulus guidelines. But it seems to take a considerable amount of time to resolve China's downward economic pressure completely. It is time to the Chinese leadership to provide a "pinpoint" answer to the questions of whether to maintain zero-covid policy and the regional lockdowns as well as how to solve the domestic and international economic challenges that China faces. ​