New restrictions in Europe worry the US 1:44
Hong Kong (CNN) -
As much of Europe faces renewed coronavirus lockdowns, and a potentially miserable - and deadly - winter looms, China is going from strength to strength.
On Monday, the country posted positive economic growth for the second consecutive quarter.
This underscores how quickly the world's second-largest economy has recovered.
It comes as a result of an apparently successful experiment in allowing massive domestic travel.
Millions of people crossed China for the national holiday of Golden Week.
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Crowds crowd the Great Wall of China
For many in Europe, China's focus on the coronavirus is characterized by the initial draconian 76-day lockdown seen in Wuhan.
Cases of the virus were first detected in the central Chinese city late last year.
But other parts of the country never saw such strict restrictions.
Even during the early stages of the pandemic when similar lockdowns were introduced in cities across China.
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China's success in controlling the coronavirus is not so much a product of those early control measures - although they have been used effectively to stop regional outbreaks - but of how the country handles things after people can move again. .
China's tracking system
In particular, China's ability to track cases across the country whenever a new group of infections is suggested has enabled the government to respond quickly and control local epidemics.
This has included a sophisticated color-coded "health code" system to track people's movements.
A clear (green) health certificate and corresponding QR code are required to enter many companies.
This ensures that almost everyone has taken action, making it easier to trace in the event of an outbreak.
These measures have allowed regional governments to close down a specific area or carry out massive tests when necessary.
This was most recently seen in Northeast China's Qingdao city, where more than 10 million people were tested in about a week, after 12 cases of local transmission were reported.
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Between provinces and regions, borders that were previously frictionless and mostly invisible are now increasingly controlled.
Public transportation can be restricted or stopped altogether in the event of an outbreak.
Entry into China from abroad has also been severely restricted, with strict quarantine measures applied on arrival.
Containment has also been aided by the widespread use of masks and adherence to public hygiene regulations, which have often been strictly controlled by the Chinese authorities and promoted by mass propaganda campaigns.
At times, this has been used to further empower China's giant security status, and compliance is rarely optional.
But the methods used have proven to be effective in other Asian countries without the threat of punishment.
The memory of the SARS virus
In part, this more productive response to the virus in China, and elsewhere in Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, is due to the different reaction of the general population compared to Europe.
East Asia suffered from the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003. The memory of that held strong, making the use of masks and other precautions easy to encourage.
In parts of Europe and other Western countries, particularly the US, the wearing of masks remains a controversial issue even now, months after it has been proven effective.
This also helped shape official responses to the virus.
Unlike other countries, Asian governments had epidemic plans to deal with potential outbreaks and did not have to struggle to come up with a plan.
And while China was criticized for its initial handling of the epidemic in Wuhan, censoring the news and downplaying its severity, once it was recognized as a national threat, the response was swift and decisive, unlike the wavering seen in Europe and America, even when the potential for a pandemic was understood.
China has also remained on high alert even as it returned to normal.
It is capable of quickly responding to new outbreaks and tracking anyone potentially affected via QR codes, apps, and the expanding (and often highly intrusive) surveillance state of the country.
Similar efforts have been made in South Korea, Hong Kong, and other parts of Asia.
Europe against covid
By comparison, tracing across much of Europe remains a disaster and many countries lack the capacity for mass testing.
When testing, the usefulness of the results is often wasted because the infrastructure to track and quarantine regional clusters is still lacking.
Similarly, European borders have been largely kept open.
Even though the bloc has the right to close its generally open borders in the name of public health.
And summer commuters are blamed for several recent outbreaks.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) indicated in February that "a large part of the world community is not yet prepared, mentally or materially, to implement the measures that have been used to contain the covid-19 in China."
“Extremely proactive surveillance to detect cases immediately is essential for these measures.
Very fast diagnosis and immediate isolation of cases.
A rigorous follow-up and quarantine of close contacts.
And an exceptionally high degree of understanding and acceptance of these measures by the population, "according to the report.
Unfortunately, in the intervening months, even as China's response has proven effective, and similar models have shown success in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia exposed to the virus for a long time, Europe still lags behind.
Lockdown
