>> these are the top stories this hour. the saudi-led coalition has launched airstrikes on yemen's capital, killing several people, after houthi rebels carried out during attacks on the united arab emirates targeting and oil facility as well as the dubai and abu dhabi airports. the u.s. has condemned it as and act of terror. the u.n. is calling on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and prevent further escalation. >> the secretary-general

condemns today's attacks on abu dhabi's international airport and the nearby industrial area, which reportedly caused several civilian casualties claimed by the houthis. attacks on civilian infrastructure and civilians are prohibited by international humanitarian law. the secretary-general calls upon all parties to exercise maximum restraint and prevent any escalation amidst heightened tensions in the region. there are no military solutions to the conflict in yemen. >> security forces in sudan have killed at least seven protesters in the capital khartoum. tear gas and bullets were fired at demonstrators marching toward the presidential palace. the u.n. has condemned the violence and called for talks to end the crisis. a 50-year-old british woman living in tonga is the first known victim of the tsunami that struck the nation on saturday. australian and new zealand air force crews have been sent to assess the damage.

martin luther king day in the united states has been marked with a march to the capital to demand more protection for voting rights. joe biden has vowed to pass a new protection law, but he lacks support in the senate. ukraine's former president poroshenko has appeared to deny treason charges. prosecutors accuse him of financing pro-russian separatists in easton are -- eastern ukraine. he says he is innocent of what he calls politically motivated accusations. organizers of the beijing winter olympics say only selected groups will be allowed to attend the games. invited spectators will have to stick close to covid protocols. those are the headlines. stick around now for inside story. ♪

>> can china maintain its zero covid strategy? new lockdowns and restrictions on travel. how will they deal with the effects on the lives of chinese? this is inside story. hello and welcome to the. many countries have abandoned aid, stopping all covid-19 infections. the omicron has spread across the world. most governments have avoided re-imposing lockdowns and travel bans, but not china, where the virus was first detected.

china's first locally transmitted omicron case was found in beijing, where the winter olympics start in less than three weeks. that is pumped health workers to seal off the presidential compound and workplace. when hundred 30 kilometers away, 20 infections triggered mass testing for the whole population of 10 jen. 13 million remain stuck in their homes after a handful of cases were detected. china's leaders are urging everyone to avoid gathering for the start of the lunar new year. >> the lead up to the olympic games and the lunar new year, the largest migration in the world. there have been several omicron cases in the region.

a whole range of new restrictions, new measures, including ramped up restrictions, ramped up checks for inbound travelers, including pcr tests 72 hours before on top of quarantine restrictions, daily temperature checks, daily tests. we understand some sites have been sealed off in beijing and several areas are in lockdown as well. a lot of alarm. we know that one case is one case too many and beijing have a closed loop system in place so athletes and travelers are separated from residents. certainly, this is causing a lot of alarm for officials there, and they are warning people to not travel during the festive period. >> china's economy does not seem to be suffering much. gdp grew 8.1% last year, above the government targets, but that growth has declined in the last three months of 2021.

some economists are worried about the long term impact of what china calls its zero covid policy. lockdowns and factory shutdowns have slowed manufacturing and exports. that is adding to the pressure on supply chains around the world. >> let's bring in our guests. we have a chief economist at the hang seng bank in china. then barcelona, the head of the health systems research group at the barcelona institute for global health, and in nottingham , the director of the china institute. professor, china now has covid in its various forms. it has the lunar new year holiday. millions of people are hoping to travel. i have seen this described as a perfect storm for china. is it? >> the scale of the challenge for the chinese authorities will

be very significant. omicron is different from various variants before. the challenge will be significant, but the zero covid policy will stay. i don't really see much scope for the chinese government to change that policy unless xi jinping says so. >> china's strict approach worked in the early days. there is and argument it was brought in later than it should have been, but it seemed to work. the economy was the only one to grow in a significant way in 2020. what impact do you think continuation of the zero covid approach is going to have on china's economy now? >> the past two years, it is safe to say zero covid strategy has done china more good than bad. tracking the performance of nine different industries in china, it looks like the negative impact of the zero covid

strategy was concentrated in tourism and transportation that is related with tourism. when it comes to industrial production, agriculture, other types of high-end services, the zero covid strategy actually had a positive impact, especially for industrial production. in the beginning of covid, china contain the spread of the pandemic and that gained china more time to become the manufacturing center for the world. that is why exports have been so strong the last two years. i do agree the zero covid strategy has become more of a burden now, at the past two years, it was successful. >> the manufacturing industry in china is being helped. we are seeing factories which are being prevented from going to full capacity because of staff shortages. not just because of omicron, but

the delta variant as well. do you think if this is allowed to run longer term -- if not unchecked, then out of the chinese authorities' ability to contain it, do you think this is going to have a knock on effect in terms of supply chains around the world? >> this answer is actually depending on how other emerging economies are doing. if we have more covid variants in the future, and you can see how different governments are dealing with the omicron, it is not very well. given what we have now, probably the buildup of supply chain capacity, other exporting countries will take one to three years. for china, it will benefit further from the zero covid strategy if the rest of the world cannot get together. -- get it together.

i don't think china is being the disruptive power for global stability in the supply chain. it is the stabilizing power at this point. >> these policies do seem to contain the virus. but they only work if you have all the backups once you actually remove those lockdowns, to be able to continue to contain the virus. do you think china is in a position to do that? >> i do think china is in a position to do it. whether they do it or not is another question. we are talking about, when restrictions are gradually removed, ensuring that people are safe so they have the high-quality face masks they need, which china should certainly be able to provide, and that ventilation is improved. ventilation in places of work and manufacturing centers, but also homes, restaurants, bars,

theaters, and so on. that is going to require effort making sure proper ventilation is in place and ensuring that people do you always wear high-quality facemasks. with omicron it is so transmissible that it is typical to maintain a zero covid policy. we see 1.5% of the population in lockdown and that is with only 200 or 300 reported cases a day. there are probably even more cases than are being reported as omicron spreads. it will get harder to maintain that zero covid policy. >> we were talking about the areas affected by the continuing presence of the virus. the industrial city of tianjin is going into its third week. how people reacting? >> the overwhelming majority of

people in china support the zero covid policy. this is what they have told us. a key policy to make china successful in the last two years, and many people do feel it that way and most people do not understand how omicron is different. for people in these cities where they are suffering from the lockdown, i think there is a different sense of how people view the zero covid policy. you have a much more mixed response among people who are being affected, particularly those who are having difficulty getting supplies, food for example. >> just to be clear, who is the target, if you like, of their anger? the central authorities in beijing? or the way the local authorities are handling this? >> the way chinese governments

deal with this sort of thing is it is never the mistake of the central government in terms of overall policy. it is always the local level, where the implementation of the policy is problematic and therefore, any public anger should focus on that and the central government will fix that. at the moment, i think that is still going to work in china. we see much more lockdowns in chinese cities and across the country. it will become much more difficult to maintain this particular narrative. >> the sinovac vaccine, i have read there are doubts of its effectiveness against certain elements of covid. do you think -- given what you are saying about additional things the chinese government has to have in place to backup

the lockdowns and lifting of lockdowns, do you think the vaccination process in china is going to be effective enough it will contain the virus should the lockdowns be lifted? >> i am not sure vaccination will be enough. we have seen with other vaccines, certainly europe with pfizer, moderna, astrazeneca, janssen, it is protected against -- protective against severe systems, which is good for the health system, but it is not limiting the spread. that is going to be the case as well in china with the vaccines they are using. what i mentioned were the additional measures that need to be in place in addition to the vaccination. >> if china is not able to contain the spread, as many other governments have not been able to do either, and as a result, more people are off work for prolonged periods of time,

what is not going to mean for china's economy? people are staying at home, they are spending less. >> there is a big compromise being made between what is the best and what is possible. china is trying to contain the pandemic in probably the only way it knows how. people can sorta member vividly what happened in early 2020 where most people were locked at home and transportation was paralyzed also on top of that. there was a run on hospitals. that is the scary part. i'm living in shanghai. ike sometimes -- i sometimes will go to the hospital for antibody checkup even without covid. there are not many covid cases here. even without that, hospitals are all very crowded. just imagine with more covid

cases, within impact that is not as damaging as delta, there will be a run on hospitals and they will be out of control. the government will try their best to contain this virus at whatever cost it takes. at least until the end of october this year. >> the chinese government is encouraging people not to travel for the lunar new year. the previous time it did that, if i understand, it stopped people traveling by stopping the trains. do you think it is going to do something as draconian as that this time, or is it going to be a different approach? >> they will avoid stopping train services. i think they will try to do everything they can to contain any spread to localities and

discourage people from traveling. it is going to be very difficult call to make and is difficult for a lot of people in china. it is the -- for a lot of people in china it is the only time they have a chance to see their families. it is encouragement for them to not travel, that is not going to be very effective in my view. >> what options do you think are open to the authorities other than simply asking people to stay at home? >> i think if you are seeing significant increase in cases, the likelihood is they will suspend train services so people will have to stay where they are. i think the importance, the central importance of the zero covid policy is so clearly and

enshrined in the rulebook at the moment that it will be difficult for anybody at the operational level to do anything that suggests he or she is not implementing the zero covid policy with enthusiasm. >> we were talking earlier about the fact it is the run up to the winter olympics. this is a significant global public image event for china. it is embedded with the way it is handling covid. if the spread is not limited, if it is not contained, what impact do you think that will have on china's global image, when it has been so adamant it is going to maintain a covid zero policy? >> china is facing this dilemma because it has been closing the border for so long. now it allows more athletes and relevant personnel to come in,

but it is still a very close country compared to what we had two years ago. the policy is the central government in china are making will have a different image from before because miscommunication happens in this situation. we have seen the words of some of my foreign friends, the exodus of foreigners from china because either they have not been seeing their family for two years, they just have to, and the cost of that would be they need to leave their job in china, or they stay, but they have to endure this long time of loneliness and the potential change of visa policies and things have become quite difficult for china. the olympics is only a small part of that story. it represents an image for china in a similar way as the 2008 summer olympics. back then it was such and open country and people had hope. everything seemed possible.

now during covid, it has become so difficult for ordinary people , and very unfortunately, most of the costs have been borne by individual families. the benefit is mostly toward industrial centers. people or entities that have capitals. i don't know if it is possible for china to reverse its image in the international stage anytime soon. they just have to try very hard. >> in terms of the way decisions are made, it seems to be a top-down approach. the policy of the central government has to be enacted by local authorities. in your experience, is that something that actually is effective? there is an element -- there is potential for miss

communication. we have seen cases of that in china over the last year. is that the most effective way to deal with this? >> around the world we have seen that is not the approach that has been working. the miss communication, the lack of communication, the feeling from the population of not understanding why the government is making the decisions they are making, the changes they make that are not being communicated well, country after country, anywhere you look, communication has been a problem. there has not been this collaborative approach in most cases toward addressing the pandemic. the situation in china reminds me how certain infectious diseases were handled during the time of the former soviet union. for example, tuberculosis. similar to the detention centers china has, if you were tested positive for tb, you were taken away from your family and put into centers, sometimes for as long as a year, even longer, to

address your tuberculosis. they avoided -- that lead people to avoid being tested. i'm afraid that may happen in china, though i understand there are jerk kony and mast testing -- draconian mast testing policies in place. >> we saw in the early days of the outbreak one of the issues was an element of miss communication or interpretation of the situation on the ground compared to what decisions would have been made further up the chain. local authorities were making decisions in an effort to either not do anything until the situation rectified itself or became more apparent or they did almost too much and in fact the lockdowns were more severe then authorities would have wanted. why is there this apparent

disconnect between central control, central authority, and local authorities? >> because of the way the communist party system functions. on one hand, the party controls everything from the very top down. this is something xi jinping has made very clear. the core leader leads the party. then you have things the core leader can never be wrong. the party also cannot be wrong. so you put the party leaders and officials at the provincial or local level in an impossible position that they have to get it right, and getting it right means delivering the right result, and if they hear

directions from above and that policy happens to be wrong, they are responsible for the mistake. likewise if they use initiative and try something different and that does not work, they are left holding the -- as well. -- the blame as well. >> xi jinping is expected to seek a third term. president sxi arguably is certan he is going to get his third term, but at the same time, he needs to demonstrate he is running a stable country because stability is core to the tenants of the communist party, isn't it? >> well, stability is certainly the keyword for the central government economic work conference in december.

i can see from the economic perspective that means china has to maintain a level of growth. for the governing capacity, i think china is at a very stable stage as reflected in its ability to contain the virus spread, its ability to maintain a very stable supply, and for a country of this size, i would say you cannot have a better result by disrupting the economic stability. i do not think there is no cost of such -- of the zero covid approach, but every country has to deal with its system, and in the u.s., i have a lot of friends facing different problems like the food shortage which is not a problem in china. but people in america enjoy their freedom now to travel around the country or even outside the country.

many people in china would want a similar kind of freedom, but people here respect authorities. they have automatically this collective thinking. they would like to maintain the current situation and do not want the pandemic to get out of control. in a way it is why china and most asian countries are able to have relatively low infection rates of covid. it would also be at the cost of jeopardizing individual freedom. >> if i can just ask you, and this is perhaps unfair, but in a couple sentences, given everything we have heard about the way the decision-making process is structured, do you think that china is going to be able to adapt the way it handles this covid crisis to be able to continue? >> i hope they will. we have seen the zero covid

policy fail in australia. we have seen challenges in countries like new zealand. they are going to have to tighten up on more restrictive policies. the way omicron transmits, i will be surprised if we don't see case numbers going up. the other question is if they will be transparent about their numbers. that can be more challenging in terms of cases, in terms of hospitalizations it would become apparent to everyone. >> i want to thank our guests. thank you to you, too, for watching. for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that is facebook.com/ajinsi destory. you can also join the conversation on twitter. for the whole team here in doha, bye for now.

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sonoko sakai: well, i grew up in a very small town called kamakura, which is about an hour outside of tokyo. and so i was immersed in the old world, old japan, very artisinal, without even knowing what that word is.