The government is betraying signs of not knowing quite how to run a state of emergency – especially one instated to defend a population against an invisible virus.
Trade has plummeted, Chinese goods are disappearing from markets, and exports of China’s favorite Central Asian commodity – natural gas – have nosedived.
Aspiring residents of the capital have historically had to register through an arcane Soviet-designed system. The government has offered a fix that is pleasing nobody.
