Residents get inoculated against the COVID-19 virus at a vaccination site in a stadium in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 2, 2021. The city of Nanjing has been organizing vaccinations from Sunday for those who are qualified to get the second shot in low-risk areas amid resurgence of COVID-19 infections.Photo:Xinhua

As the highly contagious Delta variant caused what has been described as the most serious outbreak in China since the one in Wuhan in early 2020 and sparked swift and strict anti-virus measures from officials in many places, discussions emerged about China's zero-case route. Most notably, in what appears to be a concerted campaign to smear China's anti-virus efforts, several US media outlets sought to hype up the economic costs of the country's strict approach.

A report from CNBC on Tuesday, which cited veteran strategist David Roche, said that China's zero-tolerance approach to the outbreak, which includes strict lockdowns and mass testing, could have a serious economic cost to the global economy with disruptions seen across international supply chains.

On the same day, the Wall Street Journal reported that "China's strict COVID-19 strategy risks slowing economic recovery as Delta variant hits," adding that economists were lowering full-year growth forecasts. Just a day earlier, Bloomberg asserted that China's zero-case route "risks leaving the world's second-biggest economy isolated for years to come."

Those assertions are just pure exaggeration, if not outright lies. 

In the first seven months of 2020, China's trade increased 35.1 percent year-on-year to $3.3 trillion with trade with all major trading partners, including the US, the EU and ASEAN, all growing rapidly. In 2020, China surpassed the US to become the world's biggest recipient of foreign direct investments. Is that what isolation looks like? Will the world suddenly be able to find alternatives to Chinese products from life-saving medical supplies to everyday goods? Will global investors and multilaterals suddenly become uninterested in making money in the world's second-largest economy?

As to slowing GDP growth in the rest of the year, it had already been widely predicated even before the latest round of COVID-19 outbreaks because even before the pandemic the Chinese economy could not maintain double-digit growth seen in the first half of this year. Chinese officials already set a growth target of above 6 percent for the year. Many forecasts still put China's full-year growth at above 8 percent in 2021, well above the official target. Slower growth in the second half only means the economy is returning to its normal growth trajectory before the pandemic.

The US media reports ignored the fact that it was the zero-tolerance approach that has allowed China's economic recovery to remain far ahead of the world over past year and contributed the most to global economic growth. China was the only major economy to record growth in 2020 after its strict anti-virus measures effectively reined in the epidemic and helped a rapid economic recovery. The reports also grossly ignored the failure of relatively loose anti-epidemic efforts in many countries, especially in the US.

What they also didn't mention is that China is pursuing a more precise strategy to bring the epidemic under control, in an effort to reduce impact on local manufacturing and supply chains. In the latest outbreaks, China has identified 20 high-risk and 202 medium-risk areas as of 1 pm on Wednesday, with most being limited to residential compounds and small villages. So everyday life and economic activity in most parts of the country are carrying on as usual.

While future resurgence of the virus may be inevitable, there is no reason whatsoever at the moment for China to change its approach that has been proven to be so effective, no matter what noise some foreign forces make.