Netizens in China call for IPO ban on Covid-19 testing companies

They accuse such firms of making money off public's misery amid anger over curbs

- Aw Cheng Wei

Netizens in China are calling on the authorities to ban the public listing of companies that provide Covid-19 tests and are accusing such firms of making money off the public's misery.

This comes as people are growing increasingly frustrated with the country's mass-testing strategy to curb outbreaks.

Laws should also be enacted to order companies that have profited from China's zero-Covid-19 policy to give part of their gains to the government, netizens say.

The closer scrutiny of the "Covid-19 economy" comes after local media reported in November that the authorities this year approved the initial public offering (IPO) plans of at least five companies that provide nucleic testing services.

A hashtag on the official approval on microblogging platform Weibo that started on Nov 29 has drawn 140 million views and sparked about 8,000 discussion threads.

Weibo user Keluoliaofu, who has 6.44 million followers and usually writes about China's military matters, posted on Thursday: "Allowing companies that grow rich because of nucleic testing to go for an initial public offering is to endorse feeding off the people's pain from the pandemic and sucking society's blood."