Author(s)

Rudi Xiao ¹, Chenghan Li ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Dexter Southfield School, 20 Newton St, Brookline, MA, 02445

Corresponding Author

Rudi Xiao

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate how the social values of a country could have a significant impact on how its citizens respond to the policies set by their government. In China, collectivism is one of the traditional social core values of the country. It leads the Chinese people to comply well with COVID-19 policies issued by the Chinese government. Thus, enabling China to be quite successful against the first wave of the pandemic. However, despite China being able to maintain a comparably low number of COVID-19 cases, the negative consequences resulting from the strict guidelines include hindering the development of China's economy during the later stages of the pandemics and preventing citizens from reaching natural immunity. In contrast, countries like the United States have a more individualist culture. Hence, a larger portion of the citizens refuse to comply with protocols and mandates set by the US government; this proved lethal during the beginning of the pandemic. Nonetheless, contrary to China, the United States is able to open up its gate to the world allowing its economy to recover.

KEYWORDS

COVID-19, China's COVID-19 Policies, Collectivism, Individualism

CITE THIS PAPER

Rudi Xiao, Chenghan Li, The Influence of China's Practice of Collectivism on Its COVID-19 Polices and Public Attitude. Journal of Sociology and Ethnology (2022) Vol. 4: 49-53. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/jsoce.2022.040908.

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