This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivatives license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/. Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/how-chinas-private-sector-helped-the-government-fight-coronavirus-136100

Chen, Qi

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University of Hertfordshire Research Archive

AuthorQi ChenSenior Lecturer in Criminal Justice andPenology, University of HertfordshireAcademic rigour, journalistic flairHow China’s private sector helped the governmentfight coronavirusMay 11, 2020 3.26pm BSTAfter Wuhan, the initial epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, was put into lockdown on January 23,around 80 Chinese cities adopted stay-at-home measures. Most of these are now being lifted,although various local restrictions remain.Much was made during the lockdown of the coercive power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) inimposing restrictions on such a massive population and supporting them during the quarantine. Butthe Chinese government, like many other governments around the world, only has limited resources.The Chinese private sector also played an important role in the enforcement of lockdown measures.China’s burgeoning consumer infrastructure and the diverse services run by private companiesproved crucial in managing the lockdown, and are now central to the monitoring of daily life asrestrictions lift.Private security guardsChina actually has a relatively small state bureaucracy compared to other countries. It’s estimated tohave 2 million police officers, approximately 143 per every 100,000 people. This is far below theglobal average of 351 police officers per 100,000 population. It was unrealistic for China to enforceA security guard check temperatures in Beijing. Wu Hong/EPAHow China's private sector helped the government fight coronavirus https://theconversation.com/how-chinas-private-sector-helped-the-gov...1 of 6 12/05/2020, 09:35large-scale lockdown with this small police force, and it would have been logistically and politicallydifficult to deploy the army.Instead, the task of controlling movements in urban communities across China fell to private securityguards (bao an) employed by estate management companies (wuye gongsi). China has more than 5 million private security guards, thanks to the booming real estate market, which sold 1.7 billionsquare meters of property in 2019 – five times the size of Malta. Although concerns have been raisedabout the sustainability of China’s housing boom, services boosted by this market proved to be veryuseful during the coronavirus restrictions.In today’s China, most newly developed private urban communities (xiao qu) have their own estatemanagement company. The residents’ committees of some public housing blocks also contract withestate management companies. Each household needs to pay a service fee to the company. Thesystem resembles British council tax, but the estate management companies can provide morededicated and diverse services than local councils. Private security is one of them.Before coronavirus, private security guards screened visitors at entrance gates of private housingblocks to prevent crime. During the stay-at-home measures, private security guards were tasked byestate management companies with checking the health records and body temperature of residentsgoing out for essential travel. They were rescanned and sometimes disinfected upon return. Visitorswere completely banned, apart from exceptional circumstances. To minimise essential travel, manyestate management companies also took on the responsibility of ordering and delivering groceries toeach household. Volunteers and social workers also helped provide people with what they neededduring the strict quarantines.A man under lockdown in Wuhan. Roman Pilipey/EPAHow China's private sector helped the government fight coronavirus https://theconversation.com/how-chinas-private-sector-helped-the-gov...2 of 6 12/05/2020, 09:35Estate management companies are now involved in monitoring the phased easing of restrictions, andin particular the use of China’s new health code system, which shows a person’s infection risk.Health code systemThe health code system owes much to China’s booming ecommerce sector. What initially consisted ofseparate local monitoring schemes is now an integrated system that covers the whole country. Byusing a smartphone, people can report their health condition and travel history online and get a quickresponse (QR) code.Confirmed COVID-19 patients are given a red code on a mobile app. The red code can turn green oncea patient has undergone sufficient quarantine after a full recovery. Close contacts of infected peopleand suspected cases are marked in yellow. All other citizens are marked in green. Only people with agreen code are permitted to travel and work.The colour-coding system is combined with ubiquitous temperature checking in public locations. Agreen code can turn yellow if a temperature check sets off an alarm. When this happens, the affectedperson will be denied public services immediately. Visits by grassroots pandemic control units willsoon follow.Critics see the health code system as a massive surveillance initiative imposed by the autocratic CCP.But it wasn’t introduced by the central CCP. It was first launched in February by the municipalgovernment of Hangzhou, the hometown of China’s giant online retailer Alibaba. The system wassoon pushed across Zhejiang province, a powerhouse of China’s ecommerce sector that needed peopleto keep working in factories and warehouses.The original system adopted by Hangzhou relied on technology support from Alibaba. Users obtaintheir individual codes through Alipay, an online transaction app used by 700 million Chineseconsumers. QR technology had already become an integral part of online payments in China wellbefore the COVID-19 pandemic.Read more: How China is revolutionising e-commerce with an injection of entertainmentThanks to the huge customer base of these commercial apps and the similar technology they use, ithas been fairly simple to link the local systems together and form a national monitoring scheme.How China's private sector helped the government fight coronavirus https://theconversation.com/how-chinas-private-sector-helped-the-gov...3 of 6 12/05/2020, 09:35China Coronavirus Private security COVID-19During the lockdown, this QR technology designed to exploit Chinese buying power has been swiftlyadapted for public administration purposes. Elsewhere in the world, US tech giants Google and Appleare partnering to create other contact tracking software. Despite environmentalists’ wider criticism ofconsumerism, the vast information infrastructure it has created has turned out to be an asset in theCOVID-19 pandemic.You might also likeA customer scans an Alipay QR code in a Beijing market. How Hwee Young/EPADonate £20/monthHow China's private sector helped the government fight coronavirus https://theconversation.com/how-chinas-private-sector-helped-the-gov...4 of 6 12/05/2020, 09:35Coronavirus: how health and politics have always been inextricably linked in ChinaCoronavirus: why China’s strategy to contain the virus might workHow China's private sector helped the government fight coronavirus https://theconversation.com/how-chinas-private-sector-helped-the-gov...5 of 6 12/05/2020, 09:35Mistreatment of Africans in Guangzhou threatens China’s coronavirus diplomacyThe urban history that makes China’s coronavirus lockdown possibleHow China's private sector helped the government fight coronavirus https://theconversation.com/how-chinas-private-sector-helped-the-gov...6 of 6 12/05/2020, 09:35

How China’s private sector helped the government fight coronavirus

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How China’s private sector helped the government fight coronavirus

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