Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T12:58:43.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Biopolitical Practices in Beijing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2020

Ming Li
Ming Li*
Affiliation:
School of International Studies, University of International Business and Economics, 10 Huixin East Street, Beijing100029, People’s Republic of China. Email: Liming33005@163.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic reminds people of the 1918 influenza pandemic which lasted for two years and which is estimated to have taken between 17 million to 50 million lives. The current Covid-19 pandemic, a force majeure, causing tension between states and the distancing of people physically, is steering the world into an unknown future. This article attempts to delineate the biopolitical practices in Beijing, from spring to summer, in the dimensions of the disciplinary supervision of government work, the allocation of medical resources, and the implementation of social control. Therein lies the mingling of sovereign power and biopower, conceptualized as a mutated pattern of ‘governmentality’. The public obedience to strict social control, an expression of the ‘general will’, originates from the conception of nationalism, underpinning the official narrative of ‘China’s experience’. Finally, a new pattern to handle the second outbreak, which started at Xinfadi market, has shed a new light on the thinking about ‘China’s path’.

Type
Focus: Confronting the COVID-19 Epidemic and Control: Reports and Reflections from China
Information
European Review , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , December 2021 , pp. 805 - 818
Copyright
© 2020 Academia Europaea

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beijing Municipal Health Commission (2020a) Beijingshi xinguanfeiyan fangkongxinxi. Available at http://wjw.beijing.gov.cn/wjwh/ztzl/xxgzbd/ (accessed 3 August 2020)Google Scholar
Beijing Municipal Health Commission (2020b) Beijing zuori xinzeng baogao 22li xinguanfeiyan quezhenbingli. 20 June 2020. Available at http://wjw.beijing.gov.cn/xwzx_20031/wnxw/202006/t20200620_1929179.html (accessed 5 July 2020).Google Scholar
Beijing Municipal Health Commission (2020c) Beijing gongbu xinxing guanzhuangbingdu ganran de dingdian yiyuan. 26 January 2020. Available at http://wjw.beijing.gov.cn/xwzx_20031/xwfb/202001/t20200126_1621355.html (accessed 31 May 2020).Google Scholar
Chinanews.com (2020) Beijing lianxu zhaokai 100 chang yiqing fangkong xinwen fabuhui. 2 May 2020. Available at www.chinanews.com/gn/2020/05-02/9174326.shtml (accessed 8 June 2020).Google Scholar
Encyclopaedia Britannica (2020) General will. Contributed by Munro A. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Available at www.britannica.com/topic/general-will (accessed 15 June 2020).Google Scholar
Foucault, M (1978) The History of Sexuality, vol. 1: An Introduction. Hurley, R (trans.). New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, M (2003) ‘Society Must be Defended’: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976. Macey, D (trans.). New York: Picador.Google Scholar
Foucault, M (2004) Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975. Graham, B (trans.). New York: Picador.Google Scholar
Gordon, C (1991) Governmental rationality: an introduction. In Burchell, G, Gordon, C and Miller, P (eds), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 1–52.Google Scholar
Han, WG, Wang, JF and Liu, XH (2004) Back analyzing parameters and predicting trend of SARS transmission. Advances in Earth Science 19, 925–929. https://doi:10.3321/j.issn:1001-8166.2004.06.009.Google Scholar
Huang, JS (2003) Cong SARS weiji kan zhongguo ying jianli shenmeyang de gonggongweisheng yingdui tixi. Available at www.pitt.edu/~super7/44011-45001/44121-44131.pdf (accessed 8 June 2020).Google Scholar
Huang, YZ (2004) The SARS epidemic and its aftermath in China: a political perspective. Learning from SARS: Preparing for the Next Disease Outbreak: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, pp. 116–136. https://doi.org/10.17226/10915.Google Scholar
Information Branch, Group of SARS Prevention and Control in Beijing (2003) Epidemiological features of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Beijing. Chinese Journal of Epidemiology 24, 1096–1099. https://doi:10.3760/j.issn:0254-6450.2003.12.009.Google Scholar
Jameson, F (1986) Third-world literature in the era of multinational capitalism. Social Text 15, 65–88. https://doi:10.2307/466493.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kepukitchen (2020) Dashuju shi zenmezhidao ni quguo Xinfadi de? 29 June 2020. Available at https://tech.sina.com.cn/d/i/2020-06-29/doc-iirczymk9502095.shtml (accessed 4 August).Google Scholar
Li, QY (2020) Beijing 24 xiaoshi suoding Xinfadi shi ruhe zuodao de? Daliang xijie pilu. 3 July 2020. Available at www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2020-07/03/c_1126189977.htm (accessed 3 August 2020).Google Scholar
Li, YK (2020) Beijing Xinfadiyiqing banyue quanfenxi. 27 June 2020. Available at www.sohu.com/a/404333066_114988?_trans_=000014_bdss_dkbjyq (accessed 4 August 2020).Google Scholar
Liu, K (2000) Aesthetics and Marxism: Chinese Aesthetic Marxists and Their Western Contemporaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, WR (2020) China is the real sick man of Asia. 3 February 2020. Available at www.wsj.com/articles/china-is-the-real-sick-man-of-asia-11580773677 (accessed 26 July 2020).Google Scholar
Ong, AH (2006) Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Pang, CL (2014) Chengshi wanggehua guanli zai zhuzhaixiaoqu zonghezhili zhong de yingyongmoshi yanjiu. Shanghai Municipal Construction Committee. Available at www.cih.org.hk/eHousingExpress/eHousingExpress201609/articles/1609-article01.pdf (accessed 12 June 2020).Google Scholar
Sun, LQ (2020) 827,000 fanjing renyuan zheng chuyu jujia guancha zhong. 7 March 2020. Available at http://bjrb.bjd.com.cn/html/2020-03/07/content_12450129.htm (accessed 5 June 2020).Google Scholar
Sun, X (2020) Beijing reopens SARS hospital to receive imported COVID-19 cases. 17 March 2020. Available at https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-03-17/Beijing-reopens-SARS-hospital-to-receive-imported-COVID-19-cases-OVFqAZfKb6/index.html (accessed 6 June 2020).Google Scholar
ThePaper.cn (2020) Beijing ruhe kaizhan changtaihua yiqing fangkong? Heshi huifu zhengchang jiuyi zhixu? 12 May 2020. Available at www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_7355205 (accessed 31 May 2020).Google Scholar
The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality (2020a) Beijingshi xinxing guanzhuangbingdu ganran de feiyan yiqing shequ fangkong gongzuo fang’an. 30 January 2020. Available at www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengcefagui/202001/t20200130_1621608.html (accessed 1 June 2020).Google Scholar
The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality (2020b) Beijingshi renminzhengfu guanyu jinyibu mingque zeren jiaqiang xinxingguanzhuangbingdu ganran de feiyan yufang kongzhi gongzuo de tongzhi. 31 January 2020. Available at http://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengcefagui/rmzc/202001/t20200131_1621864.html (accessed 5 June 2020).Google Scholar
Tracy, M (2020) Inside the Wall Street Journal, tensions rise over ‘sick man’ China headline. 22 February. Available at www.nytimes.com/2020/02/22/business/media/wall-street-journal-sick-man-china-headline.html (accessed 29 July 2020).Google Scholar
Wang, B (1997) The Sublime Figure of History: Aesthetics and Politics in Twentieth-Century China. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, BY, Zhao, DD, Duan, X, Wang, JL, Bai, JL and Xu, HB (2020) Luoshi he wanshan changtaihua yiqing fangkong jucuo, zhashi tuijin fugong fuchan fuxue. 19 May 2020. Available at www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2020-05/19/c_1126006017.htm (accessed 3 June 2020).Google Scholar
Yao, Y (2020) Xinfadi jiujing shi yikuai shenme di? 15 June 2020. Available at https://finance.sina.com.cn/china/gncj/2020-06-15/doc-iircuyvi8636050.shtml (accessed 3 August 2020).Google Scholar
Zhu, JR, He, Y and Wang, HN (2020) Beijing Xinfadi Yiqing zujizhan de shigeshunjian. 22 July 2020. Available at http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2020-07/22/nw.D110000renmrb_20200722_5-01.htm (accessed 3 August 2020).Google Scholar