the prosperity of the Chinese island of Hainan undermined by the Covid

“More than ever!”: this is the slogan still displayed on the home page of the Sanya tourist office website. This Chinese seaside resort on the island of Hainan, a mixture of concrete, places of shopping and sun, is usually for the Chinese a makeshift Hawaii where to practice idleness. Often deprived of trips abroad because of the “zero Covid” policy, they found in Hainan, the country’s first domestic tourist destination, a convenient escape, in particular to distract themselves from… the epidemic.

But, since a case of Covid was detected, the 1^er August, in this province, a prelude to a few thousand others, the expression “never again!” seems more appropriate to characterize Sanya – and, more broadly, Hainan. Early August, the authorities have assigned tens of thousands of tourists (80,000 according to the local press) to residence on the island based on a tiny suspicion of contamination. Public transport has been put on hold, and air connections…