Top searches: China adjusts COVID responses; Pre-sale of blockbuster Avatar's sequel
"The new measures did not signal complete relaxation of protocols but 'adjustments' in light of recent developments." -- National Health Commission
China keeps adjusting COVID-19 responses. The National Health Commission on Wednesday rolled out ten new measures, ranging from the relaxation of domestic travel restrictions to narrowing down the scope and frequency of nucleic acid tests. Local governments followed suit quickly. Both Beijing and Shanghai announced on the same day that people going to the cities no longer need three nucleic acid tests within three days. And Shanghai will no longer ban people who have stayed in Shanghai for less than five days from entering public places.
The following are a good summary of the new measures by Tsong Wong's telegram channel named "Daily Dose of China News" (DDCN):
For a full translation of the details of the measures, check out Latest policy massively relaxes COVID restrictions: summary & full translation by Pekingnology:
On Tuesday, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) holds the monthly meeting of December. The topics range from China's COVID-19 measures to boosting the economy. The meetings stressed the importance of 推动经济运行整体好转,实现质的有效提升和量的合理增长 "promoting the overall improvement of the economic operation, achieving effective improvement in quality and reasonable growth in quantity." in 2023.
The meeting's readout made no mention of the real estate industry or the "platform economy" (the Internet industry), which had previously come under intense scrutiny.
For more information on the meeting, see China plans 2023 economy out of COVID's shadow via The East is Read, a newsletter by the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), a leading non-governmental think tank in China.
Wednesday's top 10 trending searches on Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) as of 6:00 p.m. (1000 GMT):
#1 Health Codes
健康码
#2 What does it take for China to fully go back to pre-COVID days?
完全恢复到疫情前需要哪些条件
#3 New changes to epidemic control and prevention
防控措施有了这些新优化
#4 Students could apply to change the site of postgraduate entrance exam
考研生赴考困难可申请借考
#5 No PCR report needed any more to buy train tickets or take trains in China
购火车票乘车停止查验核酸证明
#6 Qatar starts dismantling Stadium 974 -- Forbes
卡塔尔已经开始拆球场了
#7 Are you ready to take a trip?
你准备出去浪吗
#8 Is the ticket price of Avatar: the Way of Water acceptable for you?
阿凡达2票价你能接受吗
#9 Ten new measures
新十条
#10 Man got bitten by a mouse during sleep
男子熟睡时疑被老鼠咬破头
#1, #2, #3, #9 China's new ten optimized measures to deal with COVID
"As for basic conditions and premises to fully conquer the virus, I think China is very close to getting them," said Liang Wannian, head of China's National Health Commission's Covid Response Expert Team, at the press conference that released ten new COVID measures on Wednesday. Liang also said that the major goal of China's epidemic control and prevention is to get things back to "pre-epidemic days," according to China's Central Television.
The expert added that there are preconditions for restoring the normal order of life. First, the virus must be less pathogenic, which the Omicron variant qualifies. Second, a high vaccination level, which would prevent death and severe cases. The third is medicine, including Chinese traditional medicine, which has been proven to be effective.
"The optimization is not completely opening up and doing nothing," said Liang, adding that the new measures are an active response instead of a passive one, according to Guangming Daily, a Chinese newspaper run by the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Liang explained that the new rules are formed based on the characteristics of the variants circulating in China at present, an evaluation of the epidemic, and the implementation of current control measures, especially the recent 20 optimization measures. China rolled out 20 measures to optimize COVID controls on Nov. 11.
According to China's Central Television, Liang stressed several key points in the final battle against COVID-19, including resolutely following CPC Central Committee's deployment, accelerating vaccination, and making preparations in medical resources for the opening up. Besides, he also pointed out that government departments at various levels should make epidemic control and prevention more scientific and more humane.
#4 Students could apply to change the site of Postgraduate entrance exam
China unveiled several measures to ensure that the postgraduate entrance exam takes place smoothly, according to the Ministry of Education on Wednesday.
Students may apply to change the site of the preliminary exam if they cannot get to the site where they made the registration due to the epidemic, said in a document released on Wednesday.
About 5.2 million people have signed up for the postgraduate exam this year, according to Caixin. As adjustments to epidemic controls unfold, the Ministry of Education prompted local governments and universities to support students in the exam.
Due to the dismal job market and the economic downturn, the number of college graduates has skyrocketed in recent years. Though some national exams like the one for public servants have been postponed, the postgraduate exam is very likely to take place on time.
#7 Are you ready to take a trip?
As China further relaxed travel restrictions, flight orders to Sanya (famous coastal city, China's equivalent of Hawaii), surged by 340 percent on Tuesday compared with the day before, according to Caijin, a magazine based in Beijing.
Changchun, the capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, has seen an increase of 1050 percent in orders to Sanya, the most drastic rise across the country. As the New Year's Day holiday is around the corner, reservations for hotel rooms in Sanya during the holiday rose about 300 percent. According to Caijin, customers from Beijing, Shanghai and Harbin are quite fervant about getting tanned under Sanya's sunshine during the New Year's day holiday.
According to the latest ten measures, people will no longer be required to provide negative nucleic acid test results or undergo health code checks when they travel to other regions.
The policy shift has sparked wide discussion on China's social media Weibo on Wednesday. Many netizens expressed their excitement of going on vacations, something many haven't done in three years because of COVID. However, there are people worrying about a possible surge in infections and getting COVID themselves.
#8 Is the ticket price of Avatar: the Way of Water acceptable for you?
The much anticipated sequel to the blockbuster Avatar: the Way of Water will be released in China's cinemas on Dec. 16, and pre-sale has kicked off on Tuesday, according to 20th Century Studios' Weibo account.
According to information online, the price of the ticket ranges from 30 yuan to 230 yuan (about 4.3 U.S. dollars to 33 dollars). Within a day, the pre-sale has reached over 1.05 million yuan.
However, some Chinese netizens question whether it is worthwhile to spend 230 yuan on a single movie ticket. Some said they would rather use the online streaming service to watch the movie on their own couch.
The service sector is one of the sectors hit hardest by COVID-19. Cinemas across the country were closed when there was an outbreak. Even for movie theatres that stayed open, there weren't many movies to put on the big screen. According to Shine, a newspaper based in Shanghai, only 378 movies were released in 2022, compared to 678 in the same period last year.
But some believe that Avatar: the Way of Water will strongly boost China's movie market. James Cameron's sci-fi feast Avatar kicked off the 3D movie era in China thirteen years ago, topping China's box office ranking in the year of 2009 with about 265 million U.S. dollars. Will the sequel wield magic again and revive China's sluggish movie market? Time will give us answers.