Will China’s covid lockdowns add to strains on supply chains?
The government’s fight against the disease has extended to Shanghai and Shenzhen
![tolerance](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/2022/03/articles/main/20220319_fnp001.jpg)
WHEN CHINA’S government said on March 5th that it would aim for economic growth of 5.5% this year, the target looked demanding. Now it looks almost fanciful. On March 14th China recorded 5,370 new cases of covid-19. That would be a negligible number in many countries. But in China it is an intolerable threat to its cherished zero-covid policy. The bulk of the cases are in the north-eastern province of Jilin, which has gone into a full lockdown. But lockdowns of varying severity have also been imposed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, two cities that account for more than 16% of China’s exports.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “A deep ditch”
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