China updates

July 2022 Updates

General situation:

The national pandemic situation has generally fluctuated to a lower level. Since June 18, the number of infected people reported every day across the country has been below 50. An average of 25 cases are reported per day.

Movement:

From 28 June onwards, China adjusted the isolation and quarantine period for close contacts and inbound personnel from "14 days of centralized isolation medical observation + 7 days of home health monitoring" to "7 days of centralized isolation medical observation + 3 days of home health monitoring" with nucleic acid testing measures from "centralized isolation medical observation".

The control measures of close contact are adjusted from "7 days of centralized isolation medical observation" to "7 days of home isolation medical observation" and nucleic acid testing on days 1, 4 and 7.

Workers: 

Workers who had contracted COVID-19 were reported to have lost their jobs and felt discriminated against to find new jobs due to the stigma that they were once COVID-19 patients.

The Supreme Court, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other departments have also issued special regulations to clarify that an employer cannot terminate an employment solely on the grounds that the worker is a confirmed patient of COVID-19, a suspected COVID-19 patient, an asymptomatic infected person, a person who has been quarantined in accordance with the law, or that the worker is from an area where the epidemic is relatively serious.

All departments and units in Shanghai should treat COVID-19 recovered workers equally and without discrimination, in accordance with the relevant requirements of laws and regulations. The community should show more care and concern for the newly recovered persons and should not label them, and not set a threshold in their working lives or allow them to live in a shadow that they should not have.

Source: read here.

Manufacturing: 

China’s manufacturing activity increased at its fastest rate in 13 months with the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), an economic indicator tracker that utilises surveys of selected private companies, showed growth in June 2022 for the first time since February at an index of 50.2.

The State Council Information Office of China (SCIO) put out a statement on 20 July 2022 saying that “China’s industrial economy showed great resilience in the first half of the year amid complex situations at home and abroad”. Data showed that value-added industrial output increased by 3.4% in the first half of 2022 compared with the same six months of 2021.

Looking towards the second half of 2022, the SCIO highlighted electronic information manufacturing, new energy vehicles and consumer goods as key subsectors for the industry. The report ends by saying that hopes for a V-shaped recovery are high in China following July’s promising rebound figures, yet it seems manufacturers are slow to share the optimism after such a tough start to 2022.

Source: read here. 

June 2022 Updates

Education:

In March, the Ministry of Education issued a notice stating that inequalities related to school access must be overcome. Families registered in an area for at least six months must have equal access to local schools and without facing pre-enrollment academic testing, the notice stated. 

In Beijing, China's most prized educational zone, municipality and district-level implementation guidelines followed soon after. School application processes in Beijing and Shanghai were recently digitalised, with Shanghai having moderately relaxed the relevant admission requirements given the difficulties associated with ongoing lockdowns.

Movement:

A major change announced during the Shanghai lockdown was that a centralised digital database of civil administration was nearing finalisation, Nikkei Asia reports. When complete, Chinese citizens will be able to avoid returning to their hukou (household registration) hometown to undertake most, if not all, civil-related tasks, such as marriage, registering a business, or accessing a pension or unemployment benefits. This will be hugely beneficial to China’s large migrant population and will mean they no longer have to take time off to travel to the place of their hukou registration to perform the above-named tasks. 

However, China far now is sticking to its zero-covid policy, which means cities with surges in infection rates could see snap lockdowns and mass testing requirements at any time. International borders remain largely shut and Chinese citizens are discouraged from leaving the country for non-essential travel. 

Within China, a decision has been made to remove an asterisk mark that appeared on the online travel history code of individuals who visited medium- or high-risk areas for COVID-19 in the last 14 days. The removal of this asterisk system has been hailed as a positive sign that domestic travel restrictions are easing. Previously, an asterisk on a travel code meant almost certain quarantining and testing upon arrival at the destination, and in many cases prevented people from leaving their cities altogether.  

Manufacturing:

A June Amcham China survey showed supply chains received some relief in June, with fewer companies reporting Covid disruptions but an overwhelming 98 per cent of firms in the poll said they are still experiencing a negative impact from Covid on their business.

With lockdowns and restrictions easing across China in June, the manufacturing sector showed signs of recovery. The official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 50.2 in June from 49.6 in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

However, an online survey of 16,500 small and medium enterprises published by Peking University, Ant Group and MYBank found that small, mostly private, businesses have been worst hit by the zero-covid policy and lockdowns. The survey found that 40 per cent did not have enough spare cash to last another month.

May 2022 Updates

Movement

• China continues to implement a zero-tolerance COVID-19 strategy nationwide. In May, officials imposed stay-home measures, entry and exit controls, nonessential business closures, and public transport suspensions in several major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. Approximately 400 million people were under some form of lockdown in China in May.

• Some local governments require individuals to present a negative COVID-19 test result to take public transport and enter airports, train stations, and subway stations, regardless of the risk level. Some locations have banned interprovincial tours to and from cities and provinces with medium- and high-risk areas. Provincial and municipal governments likely prohibit the entry of people who have been to places with COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks and may require arrivals or departing travellers to show a negative COVID-19 test result typically taken within 24-48 hours. In almost all major cities, public transport operators also require passengers to share health code information before boarding mass transit.

• In Shanghai, a three-phase plan for reopening was announced on May 16 after Shanghai achieved zero-COVID at the community level. From May 31, people in areas deemed low risk for Covid-19 can move around the city freely and resume road and public transportation, in a major step forward in its efforts to return the city to a state of normalcy. Businesses could also start to reopen without having to apply for approval from May 31.

• Restrictions in Beijing are also easing after a month of targeted lockdowns in communities and transport restrictions. 

Manufacturing

• More than 180 companies around the world have mentioned terms including “China” and “lockdowns” in their first-quarter earnings calls or financial statements, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of transcripts and filings. A list of companies who mention the Covid policy in China in their financial filings can be found here.

• As of May 19, Shanghai’s ports are back operating at 90 per cent capacity as the city kept new infections in communities at zero for a fifth consecutive day.

Education

• Schools are currently closed in Beijing and Shanghai and are conducting remote teaching. In Shanghai, school children will gradually resume some in-person classes in June with daily Covid-19 tests, the local government announced on May 26. Children attending the last two years of high school – who must prepare for the all-important college entrance examinations – will return to schools across Shanghai on June 6. They will be joined a week later by students in the final grade of middle school, while all other students are to remain at home attending online classes until further notice.

• In Beijing, students from kindergarten to senior high schools have been told not to go back to campus at present. However, preparations are being made to ensure Beijing’s 54,000 Gaokao (college entrance exam) students can sit the test between June 7 and June 10.

April 2022 Updates

General updates

The whole city of Shanghai has been locked down since early April, with no end to the lockdown in sight due to a continuous detection of cases. As of April 26, 92 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in Beijing, prompting local lockdowns of residential compounds. Beijing is also planning to roll out mass testing of its 22 million residents to bring the outbreak under control. 

Some factories have implemented closed-loop management systems to keep production going. Under this system, workers sleep, live and work within the facilities without leaving. According to Reuters, General Motors is one such company adapting this system. Other carmakers like Tesla and Volkswagen on the other hand, have had to suspend operations in their Shanghai plants. 

Manufacturing

The Caixin purchasing managers’ index (PMI) showed a contraction in the country’s giant manufacturing sector in early April and economists warned that there could be worse to come as the Shanghai lockdown begins to affect the figures for the coming months, The Guardian reported.

Since most workplaces are unable to accommodate every employee, factories and transport hubs have had to operate at reduced capacity. The effects are spilling over to the surrounding provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, crippling one of the world’s most vital supply chains. According to the Financial Times, numerous electronics manufacturers close to Shanghai have also been impacted. Producers of crucial electronic components located in the nearby city of Kunshan have halted production after lockdown rules were extended to the city. 

On April 12, The Wall Street Journal reported that more factories in and around Shanghai, including two run by an Apple Inc. supplier, are halting production because of extended Covid-19 lockdowns in the region, adding to pressure on the global supply chain. Some factories are coping by trweaking their production timetable and deciding which projects to prioritise, because they may not be able to get certain parts on time. Manufacturers have absorbed the higher marine costs in the period of slow transport, with cost increases ranging from around 10 to 100 per cent, The South China Morning Post reported on April 26. There are also concerns about global shipping delays due to congestion in Chinese ports. Hundreds of ships are reportedly positioned off coast waiting to load and unload cargo.

Due to the surge of infections, Suzhou has carried out massive nucleic acid tests in Taicang, Kunshan and Suzhou Industrial Park, and it announced upgraded COVID-19 prevention and containment measures in parts of the city on April 12. In the Wujiang Economic Development Zone, home to major electronics plants, operations are normal, but logistics issues are causing major problems. Vehicles from other cities are not allowed to enter the plants to pick up goods, which has prolonged the transport delays and delivery difficulties, The Global Times reports.

As of April 20, 666 manufacturers are trying to resume production in the Shanghai area. One of those manufacturers is Tesla, which will deploy a single shift to run at full capacity for the next three to four days, and tap its components inventory to assemble new cars, according to a report on state-owned Shanghai Television. However, according to a SCMP report, reopening got off to a slow start due to shortages of labour and vital parts.

Movement

The majority of residents in Shanghai are unable to leave their homes. However, there are reports that China's largest city will soon begin lifting lockdown in communities that report no positive cases within 14 days. Other cities recently experiencing lockdowns include Jilin and Changchun, in northeast China. In Jilin, lockdowns prevented farmers from tending fields and bans on interregional travel caused disruptions to the transport of agricultural goods. However, on April 7 Jilin became the first Omicron-hit city to clear all lockdown restrictions.

All provinces in China have banned entry to people from high-risk areas, while those from medium risk areas are subject to a range of measures including producing negative covid tests before and after arrival as well as quarantine. 

People who test positive in China are subject to mandatory quarantine in a designated government facility or isolation ward, locally known as fangcang. Since the Shanghai outbreak, reports have emerged of parents and children being separated when one family member tests positive. Following widespread uproar, Shanghai authorities loosened the rule to allow parents to accompany “children with special needs”. However, the risk of separation is still high and responses may vary from region to region. 

Several areas in Beijing have been designated medium to high-risk areas since late April due to a local outbreak, with travellers originating from these places subject to 14 days centralised quarantine and seven days home isolation upon arrival at their destinations. 

Education

Schools in lockdown stricken areas such as Shanghai have switched to online learning. For full time workers without childcare support, this is presenting a huge challenge and poses the risk of children being left alone without adult supervision. 

March 2022 Updates

Education

According to the latest deployment on epidemic prevention and control, and to ensure the safety and health of teachers and students, it has been decided that from March 12, all primary and secondary schools in Shanghai will be adjusted to online teaching, kindergartens and childcare centres will stop enrolling young children, and all types of training and childcare institutions will not be allowed to carry out offline training and childcare services.

January 2022 Updates

General updates

• With Chinese New Year just weeks away, factories we spoke to in recent days are very busy meeting the deadlines of overall production tasks. However, as several cities have seen resurgences in COVID-19 outbreaks, several rounds of all-staff COVID testing have been launched at factories in Dongguan, Shenzhen and other manufacturing hubs, which may disrupt the production schedule.

Impact on workers and families

• As the Spring Festival approaches, at least seven provinces and municipalities across China have issued notices to encourage local residents to avoid travel and stay put during the holidays. As The Centre's previous research has highlighted, most migrant parents can only see their children once or twice a year on average, and most of them who do not live with their children see Spring Festival as a precious opportunity to visit home. However, due to current pandemic control measures, most workers may not be able to return home to see their children.

• According to the Education Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality, from January 11, all out-of-school childcare centres in the city have stopped providing trusteeship services. It is expected that other high-risk areas or medium risk areas will follow suit and close all childcare centres, which may create challenges for parent workers and increases the risk of children being left alone at home unattended.

Measures to support migrant workers

• Some cities said they will offer subsidies to those who are willing to stay put during the holidays ranging from 500 Yuan ($78) to 1,000 Yuan ($156). 

• Hefei, the city in East China's Anhui province, announced that it will give 1,000 Yuan to eligible non-local residents working in the city to encourage them to stay. Enterprises in Ningbo, the city in East China's Zhejiang province, are encouraged to take measures such as granting subsidies, ensuring accommodation, and improving the dining environment during the Spring Festival to increase the enthusiasm of non-local employees to stick to their posts during the Spring Festival.

Oct/Nov 2021 Updates

General updates

• A new COVID-19 outbreak has spurred parts of China to increase restrictions on movement, with the capital Beijing sealing off some areas and north-western regions imposing a range of transport curbs and closing public venues. 

• Many kindergartens, schools and daycare facilities have also closed indefinitely in some regions, particularly in the northwest.

The situation of factories collaborating with The Centre

• Most factories are running normally and orders are certain. However, blackouts and electricity rationing have struck around 20 provinces across China over the past month, and most of factories have begun to significantly limit their operation time (such as run for three days and close for four). This is having an impact on the production arrangement and capacity. 

• According to a worker who spoke to The Centre, their monthly income has decreased because working hours have been shortened as a direct result of the power outages. Provinces that are being hit particularly hard include major manufacturing regions such as Jiangsu, Guangdong and Zhejiang. 

Special measures The Centre is taking during the pandemic

• The Centre’s staff is conducting online surveys more frequently to avoid intensive travel, especially to regions with known COVID cases. 

• The Centre is adapting more flexible programme scheduling to ensure the safe implementation of our programmes. 

• Staff who ran The Centre’s Child Friendly Spaces programmes were given intense training on COVID prevention and safety. There were no cases of COVID in any of the 12 CFS in China. 

September 2021 Updates

• China’s latest outbreak is currently concentrated in Fujian Province, including in Putian, which is known as “East China’s shoe city” due to the large number of shoe factories located there. 64 positive cases have been detected there since September 10. The spread in local transmissions is attributed to the Delta variant, and local authorities have ordered mass testing for students and teachers.

• The Putian local government has asked residents to stay in the city and those who must leave must hold proof of a negative nucleic acid test taken within the previous 48 hours, the Global Times reports. 

• From Monday September 13, all schools and kindergartens in Putian, excluding grade three senior high students and boarding schools, will switch to online classes.

July 2021 Updates

General updates

• China is currently battling a surge in local outbreaks in Jiangsu, Guangdong, Anhui and Sichuan Province. 
  

• Travel restrictions are in place in Guangdong, China's key manufacturing hub and where a large number of factories implementing projects with The Centre are based. Those leaving the city to go outside Guangdong province via train stations, highway stations, ports and shuttle bus stations must provide proof of a negative coronavirus test within 48 days before departing, excluding those travellers arriving for transfer.

• A small number of factory projects with The Centre that were due to begin in June/July have been delayed due to the pandemic. 

Impact on workers and families

• Despite new challenges brought on by local outbreaks, eight factories in China have so far perservered and opened Child Friendly Spaces to provide childcare support to their parent workers. Several more factories are expected to open Child Friendly Spaces before the end of the month. Schools and most kindergartens in China are currently closed for the summer, so Child Friendly Spaces are a much-needed, free child care solution for parent workers and deters them from taking their children with them to the production areas.

June 2021 Updates

General updates

• China is currently fighting against a new COVID-19 outbreak in Guangdong Province, China’s key manufacturing hub. More than 110 COVID-19 cases have been found in Guangdong since May, while nearly 90% of them have been detected in Guangzhou, the provincial capital.

• Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Guangdong Province, Shenzhen airport requested travellers from Guangzhou or Foshan to show negative COVID-19 test results within 72 hours of arrival. 

• The Guangzhou government has suspended personal vaccine appointments and focused on the vaccination of key groups.

May 2021 Updates

General updates

• Summer holiday for schools and kindergartens: according to the education authority, schools in most cities will start the summer holiday from mid-July and last until the end of August.

• Vaccination: As of May 25, 2021, a total of 546.714 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered nationwide. The plan is to cover 40% of the total population by June.

• Risk: As of May 26, there are 24 medium risk areas in five cities (Liu'an and Hefei in Anhui Province, Yingkou and Shengyang in Liaoning Province, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province)

February 2021 Updates

General updates

• Migrant workers wishing to travel home for the Chinese New Year to visit their families will either not be able to do so this year or will face major hurdles. New measures have been put in place to curb the world’s largest internal migration following a cluster of outbreaks in China in recent weeks.

• Over 5 million residents in Beijing and north-eastern China are under lockdown during the Chinese New Year period to limit the spread of COVID-19.

• China's National Health Commission has stated that people returning to rural areas will need to produce a negative Covid-19 test issued up to seven days before their departure during the Spring Festival. They'll also have to be under a 14-day "home observation" period - which still allows them to leave their home, but requires them to monitor their temperature daily. During this time they will also not be allowed to take part in gatherings and have to take a COVID test every seven days. This new rule is in place between Jan. 28 and March 8.

• Some cities and companies are reportedly also handing out monetary incentives to encourage people to not travel.  

December 2020 Updates

The Situation of Parents and Children

• According to a new study by CCR CSR on migrant parent workers in China's export manufacturing industry, 61% of migrant parent workers sustained significant financial losses this year due to the impact of COVID-19
  

• 40% of parents did not receive compensation for missing work due to COVID-19

• 40% of parents found it harder to guarantee their children's education this year

• 22% of parents delayed their return to work to support their children with online schooling or with childcare

• Significantly more parents relied on the grandparents to take care of their children in 2020 (62%) than in 2017 (39%)
  

The Impact of COVID-19 on Factories

Aug 13, 2020 updates

• In the last two weeks, we interviewed 4 factories. They all said that their production is back on course now and are able to maintain a normal production schedule. However, orders after December 2020 are uncertain. 

• The factories also said that their workers’ hours are currently the same as last year. 

July 28, 2020 updates

• Among the 5 factories we spoke to in July, three have laid off some workers due to shrinking orders. Those laid-off workers have to find odd jobs nearby. 

• All factories have told us that they are not going to recruit new workers this year. Workers' working hours and workload have also decreased due to the order changes.

Situation as of July 10, 2020

• This July, four factories will be opening Child Friendly Spaces for the first time to support their parent workers, while 8 factories will reopen existing spaces. Read this article for more details.

• By May, almost all factories in China resumed production.

• Some factories in the garment, footwear, textile, bag and accessories industries had to ask employees to take leave or lay off workers. Factories in the toy industry are hit less hard by the pandemic and some of them are even facing labour shortage. One factory making toys for example has reported an increase in sales this year because in-house toys are more popular when people have to stay at home.

• In April, the situation of shrinking orders continued in the garment, footwear, textile, bag and accessories industries, while several factories began to produce non-surgical masks. 

• Among 49 factories that we talked to in March, around half of them said that they haven’t had new orders in 1 or 1.5 months.

Impact on Parent Workers

Aug 13, 2020 updates

• Among 140 recently surveyed parent workers, 67.9% reported that their income is enough to cover their families’ basic living expenses of your family, or to save up.

• 32.1% however, reported that their income cannot cover all their basic expenses.

Previous updates

• Income: According to the survey with 47 workers in June, 30% said they didn’t receive their salary during the lockdown, while 32% said they received the minimum salary. After they resumed working, 55% of the surveyed workers reported reduced salary. 68% of surveyed workers said the pandemic has created a great economic loss for their family, and 91% said they can barely afford the basic necessities of life. The pandemic also impacted workers' decision on career planning, with 19% saying that they will consider a job near their hometown, and 32% saying that they will find a job back home if they are laid off. 

• Six out 19 families in our child labour remediation programme have been significantly impacted by COVID-19 due to reduced salary or working hours or unable to find new jobs due to lockdowns. 

• Childcare: In interviews with The Centre, workers said that their children are not learning efficiently following the switch to online lessons, are easily distracted and are dependent on their parents’ engagement. However, most parents have no experience helping their children with their studies, which over the long-term may result in increased anxiety and exhaustion among parents as well as a decline in children’s academic performance. 9% of the surveyed worker living with their children said they will consider sending their children back to their hometown due to the impact of COVID-19.

• Most of provinces or cities have reopened schools. In Shanghai and Beijing all schools were due to reopen before June 8. However, a recent surge in cases in Beijing has prompted Beijing to change its decision to reopen schools for students in grade 1-3. 

• Migrant workers who have started work have to leave their children alone at home with just a smartphone to take online courses, while some parents have reported installing a live camera at home so that they can monitor their children while they’re at work.

• For workers who have more than 1 child, different school schedules complicate things further, with many workers requiring greater work flexibility to manage their children’s schedules.

Actions taken by The Centre

July 28, 2020 updates

• We have completed 9 rounds of online migrant parent training, benefitting nearly 2000 parent workers

• We have finished 3 rounds of parent-child activities, benefitting nearly 30 families

• We launched a new children’s workbook. Click here to view it

• Our one-to-one consultation service has benefitted 12 parent workers 

• Five factories set up CFS for the first time this summer to support their workers during this unique time and nine factories repeated their CFS to retain their workers. See weekly updates on the 14 CFS here.

Actions taken by July 10, 2020

• Delivered three sets of online migrant parent training (MPT) and parent-child activities and a children's smartwatch programme, and also created a children's workbook for a client. See more details here. We also delivered the first module of the online MPT to 598 participants in 23 toy factories.

• By July, six parents availed of our online consultation service -- a service set up specifically to help workers deal with parenting challenges, especially new challenges brought on or intensified by the pandemic. 

• Developed new, innovative approaches to enable clients to continue supporting workers’ needs including an online  version of our training programmes (migrant parent training, line manager training, child labour prevention and remediation training), online parent-child activities, Child smartwatch, a workbook for children to help them cope with COVID-19, providing online consultation services to parent workers who feel stressed and anxious or have problems with parenting, developing WeChat pushes with parenting guidance, etc.  

• Provided webinar for factory management on how to support parent workers and creating a family friendly environment. 118 participants took part in the 1.5 hour webinar, which included specific guidance on how to understand the workers’ needs, how to strengthen the health and safety system, and suggestions on childcare solutions, etc.

• Provided one webinar on responsible recruitment to support factory with practical ideas and actions on how to conduct their recruitment practices responsibly. 178 participants took part in the 1.5-hour webinar, which discussed the key challenges and risks currently facing factories as well as practical actions they can take in response to these challenges and risks.

• For factories who already have a CFS in place, we strongly suggested that they open their CFS post COVID-19 to ensure that workers who live with their children do not have to leave them alone when children are staying at home doing home schooling. Two factories in Guangdong have opened their CFS staring from Feb 2020 to better support their parent workers. 4 factories are setting up new CFS this summer to better support their parent workers.

• Supplied healthcare kits to those families which are currently receiving support via The Centre’s child labour remediation programme.