ah, the internet knows all ships, creators, point everything, digitize everything, the hot commodity in this global experiment. our data, smart devices are embedded in our daily lives tracking every day we headed to a futuristic utopia pool, but digitize nightmare. the internet of every thing start january 17th on d, w ah, visited of the news aisha coming up to date china 0 corporate policy. with the winter olympics, approaching millions of putting to lockdown and millions more tested to stamp out coverage 19 from the country. what is life like in 0 covered china and how

sustainable is it? we're in beijing and hong kong for answers. ah. i british manager, welcome to d, w. news asia. glad you could join us. china is probably the only country in the world right now, actively pursuing a 0 corporate strategy. simply put, the goal is to have no covert cases at all in a country of 1400000000 people. that's led to some of the harshest travel restrictions and loc towns anywhere. for instance, roughly 20000000 people. that's nearly the population of sri lanka are currently in strict lockdown. and we haven't even begun talking of the millions of chinese being tested daily. a major driver of the so called dynamic 0 case policy is the upcoming

be ging winter olympics. less than 4 weeks away. but that's not the only reason. we'll discuss to some greater detail but fast this report on what 0 cove life looks like in china. china is taking no chances this week and young population 5 and a half 1000000 became the countries 3rd city to enter. corona virus lockdown authorities said cases they're included. 2 that were caused by the super infectious omicron variant and young has joined the 1000000 people of you, joe. and the more than 13000000 of sheehan to be confined to their own 4 walls. with so many under stay at home orders. providing food is a top priority for estate t. v has shown vegetables and other groceries being distributed, but residents have complained on social media over poor access to food and other

essentials didn't read up. but there have also been instances of wide spread outrage vehicle in she on this month. a woman who was 8 months pregnant was denied medical care in a hospital like this. because she hadn't had a coven test him. turned away from the hospital. the woman miscarried on the street into the hospital manager was suspended, and top health officials publicly bowed in apology. and for those deemed to have broken locked down rules, the punishment can be public to state media said for suspects were put on display in the city of jing, she on the border with vietnam. they are accused of helping illegal immigrants cross the border into china. the public display of criminals was banned in 2010, but the practice has resurfaced during the corona,

virus crackdown wine. and dallas far been pressed by junk, been out from beijing with more fabi on what is daily life like living in the country with a 0 covert policy. i would say that daily life goes on pretty much undisturbed in most parts of the country. for example, i just came back from will hon, i'm the, the city where the pandemic broke out 2 years ago. and yeah, the concert halls, there were crowded and also the shopping malls, the bars, et cetera. however, there is a constant fear lingering around them. the authorities might impose a sudden lockdown. i mean all what it takes us, really a handful of cobra cases until the authorities ready a step in and also there's a mental burden. i mean, you cannot easily travel around the country. you always need to have a negative co test ready, and of course the borders international borders are shot. it's really am quite difficult to trouble out and it back to china. so i would say it's

a heavy burden em. but um, for most people, especially in the provinces, life goes on just as normal overall. therefore, what does impression yogurt, from talking to people, do people support these measures? i would say the majority does support the measures again because they don't really feel the heavy burden or the side effects. i would describe 0, covert as a deal of the society where in minority make sacrifices for the well being of the majority. however, the public opinion seems to be slightly shifting a de lockdown in a she on her, for example, has revealed the negative side effects of the locked on policies. there were, for example, am several people who had had infect and then they died because of the medical help was too late because of the restrictions. i am a pregnant woman and had a miscarriage because the hospital didn't accept her because her negative covert test expired. and ben basically has caused a lot of anger among people and also,

yeah, it costs a rethinking of the people. is it really necessary to have those strict measures? i'd like to talk a bit about the motivation behind this or 0 covert policies it from really to do with keeping the winter olympics if i would disagree. i mean, the m desa strict m olympic babel m, the games will basically take place, sealed off from the rest of the population. however, of course, in the 0 call, the policy has to do also with the prestige of it. i mean, china was one of the 1st countries that basically defeated the virus am for most of the time and in the state media use that as an example to show how am quote unquote superior their system is. however, if you say that m is the biggest, he went for the 0 covert policy is actually at the end of the year, there will be the 20th party congress. and experts argue that china does not want

to have any instability. also caused by a local coven infections to disrupt the social stability for the 20th party congress. because during that time seating ping, the state india will declare his 3rd term in office. and it's a very sensitive issue. 5 and prosper. in beijing, we'll leave it there. but the timing, thank you so much for joining us today. now we're major part of aging 0. corporate strategy is maintaining strict control over travel. china aims to create a virus free bubble inside its borders, which is why all travelers who enter china must quarantined for between 14 to 21 days. aging is discouraging it. citizens from traveling abroad it's restricted the number of outbound flights and stopped issuing new passports. and foreign spectators are barred from the upcoming olympics. domestic fans who attend the games must quarantine and i salute for 3 weeks on their return home. and joining me now for more is epidemiologist professor ben calling. he works at

the school of public health at the university of hong kong he junk been out from reading. professor cowling is china's 0 corporate strategy working i think it has been working in the last year. you can see they've had very few outbreaks across the country. the outbreaks they do have tended to be just in one city at a time. and so the disruption has been minimized. but i think the quality is going to be a big challenge in 2022, given the more transmissible omicron very. and my next question is how sustainable is the 0 go over strategy? well i think if we look at the past 12 months with outbreaks, generally being in one or 2 cities at a time, i think what we're going to see in the coming year is more widespread outbreaks that take longer to control, but still only affect any one time a minority of the population in china. so in that sense, i think they can still sustain it, but it may be not as good as it was in 22. when he won that may be more disruption

than they would like. but then how long can the china afford these disruptions? because the strategy to control these outbreaks involved lockdown of millions of chinese citizens and not to mention the damage to the economy? how much of it can china take? i think you're right. the 1st one, the defense is keeping the virus out of the community and the longer that you can do that, that the more time you have, without any case it is the best. but then when they have all outbreaks, you can, you can see it as very disruptive intervention which are very costly. and as these occur more frequently and take longer to control, i would say the case for 0 cove, it is less concrete than maybe it was in the past. and at the same time, the vaccine coverage and the mainland is going up and up and up that doing that, those is now. so i think that would be a time when they could choose to switch over to another strategy away from 0 cobit but so far. they've shown no sign of, of planning exit. i'd like to talk about some of the other countries which were

following until recently, a similar approach to china's essentially the 0 corporate approach. countries like australia, new zealand, think of all taiwan to some extent to doing that. but then they've all switched strategy. they seem to have realized with the variance, which is only grown and potentially future more transmissible variance that might hit these nations. it might be a better idea to just manage it and accept that corporate 19 is now endemic. do you think that is not the thinking in china? i think you're right. i think a year will more again, singapore, australia, new zealand, who had very clear exit faculties from the pandemic. they said they can hold on to 0 cases until they can get back. seems to a high level and then they can relax the 0 co good policies step by step and learn to live with the virus in mainland china. there hasn't been the same kind of calculation 0. it hasn't been a means to an end is only going strategy, which has a number of benefit, particularly minimizing the,

the impact of coven infections and severe cases. but at the same time, as you know, that there are substantial costs to the policy. but for now, it seems like it is going to continue for a while just speaking from a purely a p d. me i can ever pronounce correctly, epidemiologist, to point to view professor, what would your recommendation be to the chinese government if you were in that position to make that recommendation? watch the chinese government be doing? should they be thinking about an exit strategy? given that it sounds increasingly that this is not a sustainable strategy, the, the coven 0 strategy. i would say plan for an exit because it's much better to have an exit plan. wow. that the net exit that you didn't plan on con, control, focus on getting 3rd, those coverage to a very high level in the highest risk groups, the elderly and the highly exposed population. and then have a plan to step by step progressively, relax the 0 cobra policies, maybe in some parts of the country, fast and then expanding to elsewhere. keep an eye on the situation with cobra. but

i think the plan next it would, would be the best strategy now and would have a lot of advantages over the currency of our curb strategy, which i, where we will have more and more costs and fewer and fewer obvious benefits as time goes on. we leave it there for the time being, but thank you so much for joining us today. professor ben calling from the university of hong kong. and he and a quick look now at some other developments related to the coven. 19 from demick in asia, hong kong with kindergarteners and primary schools from friday to contain a surgeon only crohn cases. and children over 5 can now get covered 900 tropes as well. and indonesia has launched a booster campaign for the general public. 3rd shots are being prioritized for the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems. and a national hero in cambodia has died after a short but impressive career. magowan land mines sniffing rad, achieved international fame for detecting more than 100 land mines and explosives,

and n g, or trained him to help clear stretches of mine fields in cambodia. it's one of the world's most heavily land mind countries. up the decades of all, the mago had a dangerous profession. he was retired at the time of his death. his keeper said he passed away peacefully in his sleep. at the age of 8 years old lets it for today as usual, our website is the w dot com, forward slash aisha. and you can follow us on facebook and twitter as well. when see you back here tomorrow or by ah, she's up to date. don't miss our highlights, the d w program online. d, w dot com highlights then jen, which

d w at any time in any place. losing any video nevada's we have, i don't feel like a bit of sons to sing along to download the as the community from super munsey to often use of doing a varied courses put into active exercises are available at d, w dot com, slash documented on facebook oh, in the dog land gym and for free with the w ah, has extends neighbors count the cost of the unrest. china has a keen interest in seeing stability in the country, which plays a vital role in regional trade. will discuss why 2 german shipyards have filed for

insolvency after their hong kong is ran out of money. now the finger pointing has begun on the going is good for gold prices have been rising for the past 2 decades, but we'll look at the illegal mining industry that's built up around it is the state of the business on reports in berlin. welcome to the program. the world has watched on with concern the last 2 weeks have seen the worst violence in catholics down since it gains independence from the soviet union 3 decades ago. the countries importance in terms of raw materials and trade, has made the unrest of particular interest to europe and neighboring russia, and is massive neighbor to the east. china is also watching closely the core gross logistics, and you're on the chinese concept quarter shows how important kazakhstan.