Compatibilities and Challenges of Crisis Management in China— An Empirical Study of Shanghai Lockdown

As the most severe public health crisis in recent decades, the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted worldwide. Crisis management strategies in response to this epidemic vary from country to country. China, pursuing the zero-COVID policy during this crisis, caused constantly debated. Prior studies have focused on the justification of the zero-COVID strategy and its political implication in China. Yet, limited attention has been given to examining the function of Chinese institutional features in implementing the policy. This article bridged the gap by recapitulating the framework of China's institutional system and analyzing its compatibility in pursuing the zero-COVID strategy, using the 2022 Shanghai lockdown as the case study. While answering the question of what might be advantages of China in implementing the virus elimination approach during the pandemic, this research concludes that China's centralized and hierarchical institutional structure enhances the effectiveness and swiftness of policy enactment and consolidated mobilization during the Shanghai lockdown. In addition, China's highly pervasive community-level institutional system facilitates effective communication between the government and the public, as well as helps practice the regulation in achieving the zero-COVID goal under the Shanghai case. Besides the structural analysis, this research also demonstrates potential difficulties and complications that the virus elimination principles might face in China. Through reviewing the characteristics of the current prevalent Omicron variant, the results showed that its rapid spreading speed, concealing property, and more extended activity on inanimate objects would be factors that challenge the patience and resolution of the public in reacting to the zero-COVID policy. These findings provide a more dynamic perspective to further crisis management research