Zero-COVID or Coexistence? It is a Question: Examining Ideological Factors Underlying the Chinese Public’s Attitude to Health Policies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic reveals an obvious ideological influence on people’s health decisions worldwide. However, little research has examined such an effect on China’s public attitude to health issues. This article tries to fill the gap by examining how conventional factors linked to health behaviours – e.g. perceived threats, scientific knowledge, and trust in science—and ideological beliefs jointly influence the Chinese public’s attitude to the zero-COVID policies. Utilizing a national quota sample (n = 1,021) collected in April 2022 when Shanghai’s lockdown resulted in numerous online protests, this study found that perceived severity of COVID-19 infection, trust in science, left-leaning ideologies, and nationalism scores were associated with supporting the zero-COVID policies. Objective scientific judgments did not influence their views. Moreover, people whose ideological stances were closer to the official lines (political left and nationalism) were less likely to associate a zero-COVID attitude with perceived threats but more likely to link their trust in science to their support for the zero-COVID policy. The findings here provided empirical proof from China to the booming research agenda on the politicization of science and health communication while expanding our understanding of how ideological beliefs may have distorted scientific cognitions and health decisions.