Project Description:
Following China’s success in the first phase of the fight against the novel coronavirus, the country now faces two major challenges. First, epidemic prevention may become a “new normal.” Although the outbreak has been effectively contained domestically, the virus continues to spread globally, and there remain potential risks of sudden outbreaks or secondary waves within China. Second, there is an urgent need to resume work and production and restore the economy. Assuming that the virus will coexist with humans over the long term, restarting economic activity while maintaining public health is essential to ensuring people’s livelihoods and sustaining social stability. Consequently, how to resume work and restore the economy under the precondition of persistent epidemic prevention has become a severe challenge for society as a whole.
China and Chile maintain close economic and trade relations, with China being Chile’s largest trading partner. During China’s intense battle against the pandemic, the suspension of domestic logistics caused significant losses to bilateral trade. Currently, as Chile faces a severe outbreak while China’s economy begins to recover, it is critical to understand how this asymmetric situation will affect China–Chile trade. Moreover, exploring the possibility of adopting measures—while maintaining strict epidemic controls—to support and promote the development of bilateral economic and trade relations is one of the key research objectives of this project.
In response to these challenges, this project has three main purposes:
To systematically review China’s overall epidemic prevention system and the status of work resumption, and on this basis, to further explore models for industrial recovery and economic development under the normalization of epidemic prevention.
To examine the distinctive economic characteristics of China and Chile, and to identify effective measures for both countries to jointly promote bilateral economic and trade development under epidemic prevention constraints.
To collaborate closely with local partners in the Chilean government and academia to share experiences, discuss challenges, and exchange practical approaches and operational models for sustaining economic development under epidemic prevention conditions.
