A Short History and Thematic Overview

Abstract

This chapter provides a short history and epidemiological overview of the Covid-19 pandemic, from its origin in Wuhan, China, to its spread across Asia and around the world. It identifies the five law and policy themes discussed in this book—first wave containment measures; emergency powers; technology, science, and expertise; politics, religion, and governance; and economy, climate, and sustainability—and concludes with some reflections and questions on Asia’s role in formulating responses to a pandemic in particular, and global crises more generally. Although Covid-19 quickly became a global pandemic, a focus on responses in Asia is both practical and intellectually defensible for three main reasons. First, China was the epicentre of the pandemic, which spread throughout January and February to other parts of the region. Second, Asia’s legal and political diversity provides a complex environment in which to study the challenges of policy responses and inter-governmental coordination, even without shifting to the global scale. Finally, Asia’s sheer size complicates matters even further.

Civilisation on Pause – Introduction to special issue ‘China's Global Capital and the Coronavirus: Views from Comparative Law and Regulation’

“…Their strategy was aided by the prevalent use of mobile technologies by Chinese citizens which were used for tracking and surveillance, a deployment of technology particularly common to authoritarian states. 17 The outbreak occurred at perhaps the most inopportune time in the Chinese calendar given that the Spring Festival in early February marks "the largest human migration," an annual migration of several hundred millions of people, and in particular the migrant workers who work in urban centers. 18 It was during the holidays when, in early February, the Chinese government effectively shut down the railways, closed Chinese and Western stores and factories, and even suspended activities in small villages in the countryside.…”

“Kill the chicken to scare the monkey”: Heavy penalties, excessive COVID‐19 control mechanisms, and legal consciousness in China

“…While the significance of law and regulation in the emergence and management of the COVID‐19 global pandemic has not received much attention in academic and public debates, recent studies have demonstrated that a country's failure or success in the fight against COVID‐19 is closely related to its legal responses (Atiles, 2021a, 2021b; Ramraj, 2021). This article uses the example of China to illustrate the role of law in an authoritarian state during a pandemic from the perspectives of ordinary people whose everyday lives were directly affected by the country's legal responses.…”