The non-zero costs of zero-covid

THE TRADE war between America and China paradoxically brought some of the countries’ citizens closer together. Ben Kostrzewa, a trade lawyer for Hogan Lovells, moved from Washington, DC, to Hong Kong to help his corporate clients navigate duties, sanctions and export controls. He used to travel two or three times a month to the mainland. If he timed it right, he could pass through the border checks in 20 minutes. “I got to know those border agents very well”, he says.

The pandemic has changed all that. In the first half of 2019, China’s busy agents recorded over 344m border crossings between the mainland and the rest of the world (including Hong Kong). In the first half of this year, that number was down by over 80%, according to official statistics. Mr Kostrzewa has not visited in almost 22 months. “It’s funny to be talking about this in the past tense,” he says.