China’s Mass COVID Testing Helps Elite Groups Get Rich, While Depleting Medical Insurance Funds

People line up to give a sample for nucleic acid testing for COVID-19 at a makeshift test site in Chaoyang District on April 25, 2022 in Beijing, China. China is trying to contain a spike in coronavirus cases in Beijing after dozens of people tested positive for the virus in recent days, causing local authorities to initiate mass testing in some areas and to lockdown some neighbourhoods in an effort to maintain the country's zero-COVID strategy. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Since the beginning of this year, a new round of virus outbreaks has swept across China, and many cities have adopted regular nucleic acid testing for all residents as a pandemic control measure.

The Chinese authorities tell the public that large-scale testing in China is provided free of charge as a best example of how they take good care of the Chinese people. As a result, very few people are aware that the frequent mass testing is exhausting their medical insurance fund, or that the huge profits from the testing are flowing into the pockets of China’s elite interest groups.

Battle Between Local Governments and Medical Insurance Fund

China’s National Medical Insurance Administration and three other government agencies jointly issued a notice recently, announcing that they would investigate how medical insurance funds have been used in the past two and a half years.