Top-Down and Bottom-Up Lockdown: Evidence from COVID-19 Prevention and Control in China

Zhang, Xiaoming; Luo, Weijie; Zhu, Jingci

doi:10.1007/s11366-020-09711-6

Cited by 43 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…During the response phase of the epidemic, the central government's initiatives reflect how China launched an unprecedented national campaign to contain the pandemic ( 58 ). In particular, the establishment of a top-down leadership mechanism ( 59 , 60 ), interprovincial assistance ( 61 , 62 ), and the mobilization of volunteer resources ( 63 ) are all valuable experiences in dealing with public health emergencies in China. Although hostility toward China is still widespread in many parts of the world, clearly that China has handled this unprecedented public health crisis fairly quickly since the lockdown of Wuhan ( 64 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

China's Public Health Policies in Response to COVID-19: From an “Authoritarian” Perspective

Gao

Peng-fei

2021

Front. Public Health

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Background: China is generally regarded internationally as an “authoritarian” state. Traditional definitions have assigned many negative connotations surrounding the term of authoritarian. We realize that it might not be considered value-neutral in other countries. But authoritarian in the Chinese context emphasizes more on centralized decision making, collectivism, coordinating all activities of the nation, and public support, which is considered a value-neutral term. Therefore, it is adopted in this paper. We would like to clarify this. Authoritarian governance is considered an important mechanism for developing China's economy and solving social problems. The COVID-19 crisis is no exception. Most of the current research on crisis management and government crises focuses on advanced, democratic countries. However, the consequences of crisis management by authoritarian governments have not been fully appreciated. Although prior research has addressed authoritarian initiatives to manage crises in China, authoritarian interventions have rarely been theorized in public health emergencies.Methods: Based on a literature review and theoretical analysis, we use a descriptive and qualitative approach to assess public health policies and mechanisms from an authoritarian perspective in China. In light of the key events and intervention measures of China's government in response to COVID-19, the strategic practices of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to construct, embody, or set political goals through authoritarian intervention in public health crisis management are discussed.Results: China's government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with a comprehensive authoritarian intervention, notably by establishing a top-down leadership mechanism, implementing a resolute lockdown, rapidly establishing square cabin hospitals, enhancing cooperation between different government departments, mobilizing a wide range of volunteer resources, enforcing the use of health codes, imposing mandatory quarantine on those returning from abroad, and implementing city-wide nucleic acid testing. These measures ensured that China was able to contain the outbreak quickly and reflect on the unique role of the Chinese authoritarian system in responding to public health crises.Conclusions: Our paper contributes to expanding the existing understanding of the relationship between crisis management and authoritarian system. China's response to COVID-19 exemplifies the unique strengths of authoritarian institutions in public health crisis management, which is a helpful and practical tool to further enhance the CPC's political legitimacy. As a socialist model of crisis management with Chinese characteristics, it may offer desirable experiences and lessons for other countries still ravaged by the epidemic.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

China's Public Health Policies in Response to COVID-19: From an “Authoritarian” Perspective

Gao

Peng-fei

2021

Front. Public Health

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“…Therefore, one could reasonably argue that strict infection prevention measures such as lockdowns have positive effects on investors’ confidence about the future. Zhang et al (2021) show that human mobility is largely decreased after lockdowns, which effectively block the transmission of COVID-19. Lau et al (2020) find that a significant decrease in the growth rate of confirmed cases is observed after the lockdowns in Wuhan.…”

Section: Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

New evidence on COVID-19 and firm performance

Ren

Zhang

2021

Economic Analysis and Policy

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“…To date, a growing number of studies have attributed China’s success in containing COVID-19 to specific actions carried out by the central government, such as real-time information delivery [ 11 ], aggressive quarantine measures [ 12 ], national human mobility restrictions [ 13 ], strict community lockdown [ 14 ], knowledge-driven scientific decision making [ 15 ], and official sanctions [ 14 ]. With a different tradition, the Chinese central government has strong coordination and mobilisation capacities due to its multilevel authoritarian governance structure and centralised leadership.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Evolution of Government Attention in Response to COVID-19 in China: A Topic Modeling Approach

2021

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The effective control over the outbreak of COVID-19 in China showcases a prompt government response, in which, however, the allocation of attention, as an essential parameter, remains obscure. This study is designed to clarify the evolution of the Chinese government’s attention in tackling the pandemic. To this end, 674 policy documents issued by the State Council of China are collected to establish a text corpus, which is then used to extract policy topics by applying the latent dirichlet allocation (LDA) model, a topic modelling approach. It is found that the response policies take different tracks in a four-stage controlling process, and five policy topics are identified as major government attention areas in all stages. Moreover, a topic evolution path is highlighted to show internal relationships between different policy topics. These findings shed light on the Chinese government’s dynamic response to the pandemic and indicate the strength of applying adaptive governance strategies in coping with public health emergencies.

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Top-Down and Bottom-Up Lockdown: Evidence from COVID-19 Prevention and Control in China

Cited by 43 publications

References 40 publications

China's Public Health Policies in Response to COVID-19: From an “Authoritarian” Perspective

China's Public Health Policies in Response to COVID-19: From an “Authoritarian” Perspective

New evidence on COVID-19 and firm performance

Understanding the Evolution of Government Attention in Response to COVID-19 in China: A Topic Modeling Approach

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