China's Governance of COVID-19: Achievements and Limitations

Abstract

China has engaged in a centralized and heavy-handed form of governance to combat COVID-19, and was able to handle the outbreak relatively early by systematically mobilizing all national capabilities. There is no denying that China's quarantine governance has objectively delivered impressive results. However, in the process, individual privacy rights were violated in the name of public interest, and local government autonomy was weakened in the face of strong intervention by the central government. And despite the fact that China has received considerable acclaim from developing countries by actively conducting quarantine and vaccine diplomacy, there is a suspicion that China's diplomatic actions are more for the purpose of expanding its power to contend with the United States than humanistic aid to developing countries.