When Zuo tested positive for COVID-19 while working as a cleaner in one of Shanghai’s largest quarantine centers, she hoped it wouldn’t be long before she could pick up the mop and start earning again.
But four months on, she is still fighting to get her job back — one of scores of recovering COVID patients facing what labor rights activists and health experts say is a widespread form of discrimination in zero-COVID China. Using snap lockdowns and mass testing, China is the last major economy still pursuing the goal of stamping out the virus completely.
Those who test positive, as well as their contacts, are all sent to central quarantine facilities, while a flare-up in a factory can grind production to a halt.
Photo: AFP
Rights groups say the strict rules are feeding COVID-related discrimination and shutting out thousands of people from China’s already bleak job market — with migrant workers and young people hit hardest.
“People are afraid they might contract the virus from us, so they shun us,” said Zuo, who only gave her last name for fear of retribution.“Recruiters check COVID testing history going back several months during an interview.”
China’s strict control measures have led to stigma against not just recovered patients, but also their families, neighbors, friends and even frontline healthcare workers, said Jin Dongyan (金冬雁) from the School of Biomedical Sciences at Hong Kong University.
Photo: AFP
“It is unscientific to think that people who were infected once will continue to carry the virus and be infectious long after recovering,” Jin said. “Due to the lack of awareness, some fear that those who have been infected are more susceptible to being reinfected, but in reality, it’s the opposite.”
Zuo is now fighting a court battle with her employer, who has refused to pay her wages since she got sick, and who cites her disease history as a reason to bar her from returning to work. Her employer, a service company named Shanghai Yuanmao BPO, declined to comment citing the pending court case.
‘TREATED LIKE A VIRUS’
Photo: Bloomberg
He Yuxiu is a Chinese social media influencer who goes by a pseudonym and was living in Ukraine until Russia invaded.
She fled the war and returned home, then found a job as a Russian-language teacher in northern China’s Hebei province, relieved to have left her troubles behind.
But when her school learned that she had been infected while in Ukraine, she was fired.
“I never imagined I’d lose my first job for this reason,” she said in a video posted on China’s Twitter-like Weibo. “Why should we be treated like a virus when we have defeated it?”
The stigma is widespread — job ads for factory workers in Shanghai posted last month said applicants with a history of COVID-19 infection would be refused work. The story of a young woman who lived in a toilet for weeks in Shanghai’s Hongqiao railway station since she was unable to find work or return to her village due to the stigma of having been infected went viral last month.
And a theater in the southern Chinese city of Foshan was forced to apologize after a notice banning recovered patients from entering sparked a public backlash.
DARK SITUATION
Beijing’s National Health Commission and human resources ministry last month banned employers from discriminating against recovered COVID-19 patients, while Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) has called for heavy punishments for those breaking the rules.
But job seekers and activists are skeptical.
Factories in Shanghai continued to refuse to hire recovered workers even after the city announced strict anti-discrimination rules, employment agent Wang Tao said, because they fear a mass outbreak or health inspections.
“Some factories give different excuses despite being short of workers,” Wang added.
“But all those who are turned down have tested positive in the past.”
Eight manufacturers named by Chinese state media as having engaged in discriminatory practices — including iPhone manufacturer Foxconn — were contacted for this story, but they declined to comment.
“It’s very difficult for workers to protect their rights since most employers offer different excuses and it is hard to prove that a labor law has been violated in these cases,” said Aidan Chau, a researcher for rights group China Labour Bulletin.
“It is important for labor unions to step up. But many small and medium factories don’t have one.”
Those who have tested positive are often referred to as “little sheep people” (小羊人)on Chinese social media. In Mandarin, the word for “positive” and “sheep” are pronounced the same way.
“It is very difficult for recovered patients to go back to our normal lives,” said Zuo, the cleaner from Shanghai.
“No matter where we go, our infection history will follow us like a dark shadow.”
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry consumes electricity at rates that would strain most national grids. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) alone accounted for more than 9 percent, or 2,590 megawatts (MW), of the nation’s power demand last year. The factories that produce chips for the world’s phones and servers run around the clock. They cannot tolerate blackouts. Yet Taiwan imports 97 percent of its energy, with liquefied natural gas reserves measured in days. Underground, Taiwan has options. Studies from National Taiwan University estimate recoverable geothermal resources at more than 33,000 MW. Current installed capacity stands below 10 MW. OBSTACLES Despite Taiwan’s significant geothermal potential, the
In our discussions of tourism in Taiwan we often criticize the government’s addiction to promoting food and shopping, while ignoring Taiwan’s underdeveloped trekking and adventure travel opportunities. This discussion, however, is decidedly land-focused. When was the last time a port entered into it? Last week I encountered journalist and travel writer Cameron Dueck, who had sailed to Taiwan in 2023-24, and was full of tales. Like everyone who visits, he and his partner Fiona Ching loved our island nation and had nothing but wonderful experiences on land. But he had little positive to say about the way Taiwan has organized its
The entire Li Zhenxiu (李貞秀) saga has been an ugly, complicated mess. Born in China’s Hunan Province, she moved to work in Shenzhen, where she met her future Taiwanese husband. Most accounts have her arriving in Taiwan and marrying somewhere between 1993 and 1999. She built a successful career in Taiwan in the tech industry before founding her own company. She also served in high-ranking positions on various environmentally-focused tech associations. She says she was inspired by the founding of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in 2019 by Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), and began volunteering for the party soon after. Ko
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) returned from her trip to meet People’s Republic of China (PRC) dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) bearing “a gift” for the people of Taiwan: 10 measures the PRC proposed to “facilitate the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.” “China on Sunday unveiled 10 new incentive measures for Taiwan,” wrote Reuters, wrongly. The PRC’s longstanding habit with Taiwan relations is to repackage already extant or once-existing policies and declare that they are “new.” The list forwarded by Cheng reflects that practice. NEW MEASURES? Note the first item: establishing regular communication mechanisms between the Chinese Communist Party
RSS