Disney closed its Shanghai theme park due to government COVID-19 rules. Visitors cannot leave without a negative test. Given how slow this process has been in parts of China, people could be in the Shanghai location for a long time.
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Reuters reports that “Videos circulating on China’s Weibo platform on Monday showed people rushing to the park’s gates, which were already locked.” Reuters could not confirm if these videos were accurate.
The news is more evidence of how draconian China’s war on COVID-19 can be. It has shuttered entire large cities. The efforts, in general, have not worked. China has a “zero covid policy.” Nevertheless, the virus has spread as rapidly as anywhere else in the world. China says only a few hundred people have died of COVID-19. The figure certainly numbers in the tens of thousands or perhaps more.
These lockdowns have done huge damage to the Chinese economy. Reuters reports:
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 49.2 from 50.1 in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday. The result unexpectedly broke below the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction with economists in a Reuters poll forecasting the PMI to have come in at exactly 50.0.
Disney, like other western companies, is caught in the vice of China’s policy. Its parks are supposed to be customer friendly. That is hard when people cannot leave.
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