CHINA: STORE UP ON FOOD, OTHER ESSENTIALS WHILE GOVERNMENT FIGHTS COVID WAR

China has taken extreme measures to snuff out a new outbreak of COVID-19 after authorities identified 54 new locally transmitted cases last Monday (out of a population of 1.4 billion people).
Authorities in the country told families that they should store food items and other essential products in case the emergency order gets more severe in certain parts of the country and lockdowns are enforced.
“This policy will continue for a relatively long time and it will depend on how the rest of the world gets control of the pandemic,” Zhong Nanshan, a COVID-19 expert, and government adviser, told the Financial Times.
The paper reported that Beijing has a “zero-COVID policy,” which means the country wants to completely erase the virus. Indeed, as goes China, so too has many parts of the world. (See “HOW THE CCP WENT VIRAL ON THE WINGS OF COVID” and ““NEW ZEALAND CALLS FOR LOCKDOWN AFTER ONE CASE.”)
The current outbreak in China impacts 31 provinces, which is considered the broadest since the start of the virus.
One top health official in the country said the reemergence of the virus forces the country to face a “complex and grave challenge this winter and next spring.” And in China, where the COVID War was launched on their Lunar New Year 2020, the Year of the Rat, of the 1.4 billion people just 4,636 have died from the virus. 
The country’s strict COVID-19 policies have hampered economic growth, despite strong export numbers. As we have reported that the Chinese GDP in the third quarter fell to 4.9 percent, which marks its slowest pace of growth in the year.
The Ministry of Commerce last Monday told local governments that they should encourage residents to stockpile items that they consider daily necessities in order to “meet the needs of daily life and emergencies,” CNN reported. These officials have also told local authorities that prices on these goods must remain stable, according to the report.
The Global Times rejected the idea that the call to stockpile food may be tied to the tension with Taiwan.
TREND FORECAST: China has greatly restricted foreign travel. Indeed, it will not even all travel to Hong Kong until possibly June. We note this to continue to illustrate China’s dual circulation policy which will encourage the nation to be self-sustaining. While it will still rely on its export business, it’s primary goal is for its people to buy Made-in-China products. 
Thus, as the lockdowns persist, more of what is made in China will be bought by the people. Moreover, we forecast, there is going to be less of a desire for American and European products and China creates more of its own style… particularly as the style of America becomes more tasteless and less elegant.