China’s Job Market Now Discriminates Against Those Who’ve Never Contracted COVID-19

A delivery driver organizes packages in the street that are part of a backlog due to COVID-19 outbreaks outside a depot in Beijing on Dec. 21, 2022. The rapid spread of the virus across China has left many delivery services short-staffed as drivers become infected, impacting the supply chain. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

The sharp U-Turn of the Chinese authorities’ COVID control measures has led to a variety of chaotic situations in China, including how employers are now preferring to hire those who have already been infected over those who have not contracted the virus.

The regime announced an easing of COVID-19 measures on Dec. 7, and since then, local authorities have rolled out new rules contradictory to previous directives.

On Dec. 21, Anhui Province said in a press conference that residents who test positive for COVID-19 will no longer have to have their units or buildings sealed off and that close contacts of those individuals who test positive will be allowed to go to work—meaning they no longer had to self-quarantine at home for medical observation.

The job market in China has also seen a reversal from the previous trends. People who have never tested positive now find themselves the new targets of employment discrimination.

Job Adverts

Some online job advertisements claim that “priority is given to those who have tested positive,” while others explicitly state that “those who always test negative, please do not contact us for job opportunities at all.”

Just a few weeks ago, many job advertisements indicated that they would not consider people who had been positive or had been sent to a mass quarantine camp.

Tao Hua (pseudonym), a resident of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, spoke with The Epoch Times on Dec. 21 about the dramatic turnaround in the job market.

“The hiring trend is completely reversed. Regardless, it’s always ordinary civilians who are victims,” she said.

Tao said those who have been infected have antibodies in their bodies, so their risk of being infected again is low; but those who have never been infected may catch the virus, and when they do, they will have a fever and will have to ask for sick leave.

“It is out of the concern for profits that the employers decide to hire people who have been infected,” she said.

A worker producing stuffed toys at a factory in Lianyungang, in China's eastern Jiangsu Province on Dec. 15, 2022. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Japan-based current affairs commentator Ou Kai thinks this turnaround in China’s job market is “actually nothing surprising.”

He told The Epoch Times on Dec. 21 that under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), companies and individuals always try to stay politically in line with the current “mainstream view”—what the authorities are currently promoting. In other words, they try to play smart politically in order to survive.

When the CCP implemented the zero-COVID policy, if anyone tested positive, residents in the whole building would be quarantined. Nowadays, except for special occasions, people don’t need to provide a nucleic acid test report and a health code to enter public venues.

According to Ou Kai, under the CCP, many Chinese people have developed the habit of self-censorship.

“They are trying to please the authorities. That is, wherever the authorities direct the discourse, people will adjust accordingly,” he said.

“When the authorities intend to favor those who have tested positive, many people will also favor ‘positive’ individuals to declare their stance.”