Fighting back tears against pandemic-era restrictions: The case for the zero-COVID policy of Chinese president Xi Jinping
President Xi Jinping’s government is still officially committed to stopping virus transmission. As it winds down its zero-COVID strategy, the party will tolerate more cases without any restrictions on travel or businesses.
Fighting back tears, she shouts abuse at the hazmat-suited workers below in a video that has recently gone viral on social media platform Weibo and which appears to encapsulate the Chinese public’s growing frustration with their government’s uncompromising zero-Covid policy.
The woman has been under quarantine for half a year since returning from university in the summer, she shouts at the workers. They looked back, seemingly unmoved.
While most Asian economies – even those with previously hardline zero-Covid stances – are abandoning pandemic-era restrictions, authorities in China remain zealous in theirs, repeatedly insisting this week in state-run media articles that the battle against the virus remains “winnable.”
That claim comes even as infections flare and a new strain circulates just days before the country’s most important political event, the Communist Party Congress beginning in Beijing on Sunday at which Xi Jinping is expected to cement his place as the country’s most powerful leader in decades.
Observers across the world will be watching the twice a decade meeting for some signs of the party’s priorities when it comes to its zero-covid stance, which has been blamed for contributing to mounting problems in the economy.
Did China’s First Protest to the Covid Test Smell Likely to Win? No to Food, No to Democracy, but No to a Great Leader
There is a lot of fear in China’s capital, where online photos posted Thursday appeared to show a rare public protest against the president. Yes to food if you say no to the Covid test. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. To dignity is not to lie. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. Yes to vote but no to a great leader. One banner hanging over an overpass with the words ” Don’t be a slave, be a citizen,” was seen despite increased security around the Congress.
Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, immediately censored search results for “Sitong Bridge,” the site of the protest. Before long, key words including “Beijing,” “Haidian,” “warrior,” “brave man,” and even “courage” were restricted from search.
Numerous accounts on Weibo and WeChat, the super-app essential for daily life in China, have been banned after commenting on – or alluding to – the protest.
Many people spoke out about their support and awe. Some people shared a Chinese pop hit called “Lonely Warrior” which was written about the protester, who they called a “hero.” Others posted under the # and said, “I saw it.”
Even in the midst of rising public unrest, all the signs show that the zero- Covid approach will stick with the party even after Congress as reported in the state media this week.
There are 25 million people who have already undergone the world’s strictest lock down, and the people of the city are on edge if there is a repeat.
According to the Financial Times, Sun said that more than half of the population in Beijing and Chengdu were already affected by Covid’s spread.
Spooked by the possibility of unpredictable and unannounced snap lockdowns – and mindful that authorities have previously backtracked after suggesting that no such measures were coming – some people in the city have reportedly been hoarding drinking water.
There has been a panic buying in the past, but it has gotten worse by the announcement that the water authorities of Shanghai have taken action to make sure the water quality is good.
Exactly what is driving the increase in infections is not clear, though authorities are scrambling to contain the spread of the BF.7 coronavirus strain after it was first detected in China in late September in Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia.
The country has also seen an uptick in cases in domestic tourist destinations, despite its strict curbs having discouraged people from traveling or spending over China’s Golden Week holiday in early October.
More than 240,000 university students have been locked down on campuses because of the latest outbreak according to the deputy director of the department of education. And the outbreak on campus has led to punitive action, with one university Communist Party boss being sacked after 39 students from his institution tested positive.
22 million people in the western part of the country are banned from leaving the area and are required to stay. The official tally shows that the region recorded more than 400 new cases on Thursday.
Beijing seems unwilling to change from its hardline stance. For three days this week, the state-run Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily published commentaries reiterating that China would not let its guard down.
The battle against Covid was winnable, it insisted. Other countries that opened their doors and alleviated restrictions were forced to because they failed to effectively control the epidemic in a timely manner.
The Chinese government announced easing of strict zero-COVID restrictions on international flights and of SARS-CoV-2 in a result of a public consultation
The restriction on international flights has been removed in a sign that the zero- covid policy has not been loosened too much.
The new measures were announced Friday following a meeting by the ruling Communist Party’s top decision-making body, during which leaders vowed to maintain Covid protocols while stressing the need to minimize economic and social disruptions.
The zero-tolerance approach has faced increasing challenges, and has drawn a lot of backlash.
The easing of the measures will see authorities scrap the so-called “circuit breaker” mechanism, under which China-bound flights were suspended if an airline was found to carry a certain number of passengers who tested positive for Covid upon landing.
Arrival passengers must stay in a hotel for five days and then return home for three days. That is down from as much as three weeks in the past.
The new Covid-19 restrictions have not been good for international investors. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shot up 7% just after the noon break local time, while mainland China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.5%.
People who are identified as close contacts of Covid-19 cases will have shortened their stay in centralized government-operated facilities from seven days to five days, and three days at home.
The Chinese government issued new guidelines easing some of its strict zero-COVID policies on Wednesday. Testing requirements and travel restrictions have been relaxed, and people infected with SARS-CoV-2 who have mild or no symptoms are for the first time allowed to isolate at home instead of in centrally managed facilities. Researchers worry that the changes will lead to a surge in hospital infections.
The government reported 10,535 new domestically transmitted cases on Thursday, the highest in months, and the authorities girded for the situation to worsen.
The epidemic is likely to expand in scope and scale in the winter and spring due to weather factors, said the National Health Commission.
Covid Relaxation Reaction in China During a Pandemic Crisis: The Impact on a Citywide Lockdown and a Closed Society in Beijing
Workers across China have dismantled some of the physical signs of the country’s zero-Covid controls, peeling health code scanning signs off metro station walls and closing some checkpoints after the government unveiled an overhaul of its pandemic policy.
While the changes were welcomed with relief by many, there was also a sense that they were uncertain about what the future would hold.
“The world changed overnight, and that’s really amazing,” said Echo Ding, 30, a manager at a tech company in Beijing. “I feel like we are getting back to normal life. If I don’t get back to a normal life, I’ll lose my mind.
How can it change so quickly? Ding asked. It makes me feel like we are stupid. It’s all up to them. They said it’s good, so then it’s good … that’s what I feel right now. I have no choice but to look at it. All that I can do is follow the arrangement.
David Wang, 33, a freelancer in Shanghai, said although the changes were welcome, they had also sparked a feeling of disbelief in the city, which underwent a chaotic, more than two-month-long, citywide lockdown earlier this year.
“Of course I was very happy about these new changes – (but) most of my friends are showing typical signs of PTSD, they just can’t believe it’s happening,” he said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/china/china-zero-covid-relaxation-reaction-intl-hnk/index.html
What to Do if You Get Infected with Omicron: How Has China Assisted the Viral Government? Discussion on Weibo
China’s level of experience in responding to the virus, as well as scientific evidence, are some of the reasons why the rules have been changed.
Last Wednesday, top health officials made a sweeping rollback of the mass testing, centralized quarantine, and health code tracking rules that it had relied on to control viral spread. Health code use in designated places, as well as home isolation of cases, remain, along with other aspects of those measures.
The government and state media have used the potential long-term effects of the virus as justification for the maintenance of restrictive policies.
There has been a lot of articles that highlight the more mild nature of Omicron, which has created a feeling of whiplash for some, and it is not the kind of public messaging campaigns that other countries had before their own policies changed.
Meanwhile, experts have warned a lack of experience with the virus – and years of state media coverage focusing on its dangers and impact overseas, before a recent shift in tone – could push those who are not in critical need to seek medical care, further overwhelming systems.
On China’s heavily moderated social media platform Weibo, topics and hashtags related to what to do if infected by Omicron trended high on Thursday morning, while there were numerous reports of panic buying of fever medications.
The people were not told what kind of medicine they would need if they got sick. Sam Wang, 26, a lawyer in Beijing, said the policy release felt abrupt and arbitrary, and should have been done a long, long time ago.
Bob Li, a graduate student in Beijing, who tested positive for the virus on Friday said he wasn’t afraid of the virus, but his mother, who lives in the countryside, stayed up all night worrying about him. “She finds the virus a very, very scary thing,” Li said.
Residents say that fear of the impact of Covid-19 may play out along geographic lines and that younger people are more likely to support reopening the country and relaxing rules.
How the new Covid-19 health codes will be implemented in cities and provinces, and how to prepare for the next phase of influenza epidemics in China
Meanwhile, his mother was now buying high-grade N95 masks and preparing for a “nuclear winter” until a potential initial wave of cases passed, Wang said.
As local authorities adjust to the guidelines, many are watching to see how they are implemented in their cities.
In Beijing, authorities on Wednesday said a health code showing a negative Covid-19 test would still be required for dining in at restaurants or entering some entertainment venues – in conflict with the national guidelines.
Hao, in Beijing, said on Wednesday evening that her health code had turned yellow – which would usually bar her from entering most public places, until she queued up for another test that returned a negative result. She stayed at home to wait and see, because she knew she could go out freely, but only under the new rules.
The move follows the government’s snap announcement last week that it was ending many of the most draconian measures. Three years of restrictions on those moving between cities and provinces, as well as requirements that a clean bill of health be shown to access public areas, have come and gone.
But the government hasn’t stated the goal of its new policy, which could create confusion, says Huang. Local governments will likely ditch all the zero-COVID measures without investing serious in preparing for the transition since these measures will very likely lead to a messy and hasty process.
But researchers say some aspects of the new rules are ambiguous and open to interpretation by local governments, including when and where to test people during an outbreak, what defines high-risk areas and how to manage them.
In densely populated high-rise buildings in China it will be difficult to limit transmission. The researcher said that allowing people to suck at home would make the spread of the disease worse. This could cause a lot of problems for hospitals.
The timing of the reopening is not ideal, say researchers. Winter is peak influenza season so hospitals will already be experiencing a rise in the number of patients. Many people will be travelling across the country at the same time for the upcoming Spring Festival and lunar New Year, further increasing the spread of the disease, warns an economist at Yale University.
The Chinese government does not have a strong system for primary medical care and so many people go to the hospital for mild symptoms, according to Xi Chen.
Without additional support, the eased restrictions might not help businesses to recover from protracted lockdowns or remove the social stigma attached to COVID-19, says Joy Zhang, a sociologist at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. I’m afraid the risk of health and socio-economic risk will be passed on to individuals.
Urgent guidance is needed on how to curb transmission during a surge, such as through mask mandates, work-from-home policies and temporary school closures, says Cowling. And given the reduction in testing, it is not clear how officials will track whether cities are approaching, or have passed, the peak of an infection wave, he says.
Researchers are concerned that hasty changes will not leave enough time to ramp up vaccination among older people. Currently, some 70% of people aged 60 or older, and 40% of those aged 80 or more, have received a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
With fourth-dose vaccination coverage of 85% and antiviral coverage of 60%, the death toll can be reduced by 26% to 35%, according to the study, which is funded partly by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Hong Kong government.
The COVID-19 crisis in China: state of the art and prospects for the coming era of health reform in the era before the 2020 epidemic
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. You can sign up here.
Changes continued Monday as authorities announced a deactivation of the “mobile itinerary card” health tracking function planned for the following day.
It had been a point of contention for many Chinese people, including due to concerns around data collection and its use by local governments to ban entry to those who have visited a city with a “high-risk zone,” even if they did not go to those areas within that city.
But as the scrapping of parts of the zero-Covid infrastructure come apace, there are questions about how the country’s health system will handle a mass outbreak.
Media outlet China Youth Daily documented hours-long lines at a clinic in central Beijing on Friday, and cited unnamed experts calling for residents not to visit hospitals unless necessary.
A hospital official on Saturday appealed to residents with mild or no symptoms of Covid if they had a surge in emergency calls to not use the city’s emergency services line.
The daily volume of emergency calls had surged from its usual 5,000 to more than 30,000 in recent days, Chen Zhi, chief physician of the Beijing Emergency Center said, according to official media.
In an interview published by state media, a top Covid-19 expert said that the disease was spreading rapidly because of Omicron variants in China.
Zhong, a key public voice since the early days of the H1N1 epidemic in 2020, said it will be difficult to completely cut off the transmission chain, even if the prevention and control is strong.
The rapid rollback of testing nationwide and the shift by many people to use antigen tests at home has also made it difficult to gauge the extent of the spread, with official data now appearing meaningless.
Beijing tries to be resilient against the COVID-19 epidemic in light of the recent outcry against the U.S. and China
Outside experts have warned that China may be underprepared to handle the expected surge of cases, after the surprise move to lift its measures in the wake of nationwide protests against the policy, growing case numbers and rising economic costs.
Zhong, in the state media interview, said the government’s top priority now should be booster shots, particularly for the elderly and others most at risk, especially with China’s Lunar New Year coming up next month – a peak travel time where urban residents visit elderly relatives and return to rural hometowns.
Facing a surge in COVID-19 cases, China is setting up more intensive care facilities and trying to strengthen hospitals’ ability to deal with severe cases.
China has a temporary shortage of some “hot-selling” drugs, the market watchdog said on Friday, while major online retailer said last week it was taking steps to ensure stable supplies.
A Beijing doctor spoke in a state TV interview saying that people with mild symptoms who test positive for Covid-19 don’t need to take medicine to recover.
“People with asymptomatic inflections do not need medication at all. It is possible to rest at home and maintain a good mood. ,” Li Tongzeng, chief infectious disease physician at Beijing You An Hospital, said in an interview linked to a hashtag viewed more than 370 million times since Friday.
China will no longer require travel tracing as part of an uncertain exit from its strict “zero-carbon” policies that have elicited widespread unhappiness.
Last month in Beijing and several other cities, protests over the restrictions grew into calls for Xi and the Communist Party to step down — a level of public dissent not seen in decades. There were many arrests at the protests or the days following, because of a massive show of force by the party.
China can stop being “behind the curve” on its COVID measures after the first lunar new year of Chinese economic growth and development
Concerns have been raised about a new wave of infections that could overwhelm health care resources in some areas.
At the same time, the government reversed course by allowing those with mild symptoms to recuperate at home rather than being sent to field hospitals that have become notorious for overcrowding and poor hygiene.
The Chinese internet, which is tightly controlled by the government, sought to calm the public by saying that economic activity would soon return to pre-pandemic levels and that restrictions would continue to be dropped.
China’s leaders praised zero-COVID for keeping numbers of cases and deaths low but now health officials say the most prevalent omicron variety poses less of a risk.
Last week, the World Health Organization warned that China may be “behind the curve” on reporting data, offering to help with collecting information. WHO Health Emergencies Program Executive Director Michael Ryan said, “In China, what’s been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up. According to a British health data firm, China’s true COVID figure are a million infections and 5,000 deaths a day. In China’s eastern Shandong province a health official said the city was seeing half a million new COVID cases a day. The report was shared by news outlets, but then seemed to have been edited later to remove the figures. There has also reportedly been surge in need for crematoriums. China had earlier this month scrapped many of its very restrictive COVID measures following protests around the country that were critical of leadership. The demonstrations were sparked by deaths in a fire at an apartment block in the city of Urumqi in Xinjiang province, which killed at least 10 people. The deaths could have been avoided if restrictions were less strict. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation has a forecast of 1 million deaths in China if social distancing policies don’t change. Many are concerned that celebrations during next month’s Lunar New Year in China could become superspreader events.
Xi’s government promised to reduce the cost and disruption after the economy shrank by 2.6% from the previous quarter in the three months ending in June. Forecasters say the economy probably is shrinking in the current quarter. Weak demand caused imports to fall 10.9% from a year ago in November.
There is still a chance that the ruling party will reverse course and impose restrictions if there is a large-scale outbreak.
The room for local governments to assign their own regulations was given last week. Most restaurants in Beijing, for example, still require a negative test result obtained over the previous 48 hours and rules are even stricter for government offices.
Living in Guangzhou: a shock of sorts when a friend accidentally tested positive for Covid-19 — Three years after leaving the country
The editor-in-chief of the China lifestyle magazine, That’s, is located in Beijing, China. He has lived in Guangzhou, China since 2018. The views he expresses are his own. Follow him on the social media site. Read more opinion on CNN.
SHANGHAI — For nearly three years, leaving my apartment involved a routine not unlike an aircraft pilot’s before takeoff. Mask: check. Anti-viral hand sanitizer: Check. I have a green code on my phone reflecting the latest Covid test. Courage to risk being caught in an abrupt lock down somewhere is a check.
I had good reason to worry. A teacher and his colleagues at his school were sent to a centralized quark one month ago after a student tested positive for Covid-19. I was worried about the same thing happening to me.
To my surprise, nothing of the sort. I took the Covid-19 test but didn’t do very well. Before my result came out, I was free to leave my home and go about my day in a different way.
If this had occurred just weeks before, I would have, like my friend, been labeled a “close contact” and therefore would have been powerless to avoid the quarantine facility’s vice-like grip.
Over the next few days, the Guangzhou I came to in 2018 was almost back to normal. The streets were lined with people. Friends and families who hadn’t seen each other for months were gathered together in bars and restaurants, with their movements no longer being tracked, because the QR codes were being ripped down from walls.
Just look at the new measure forbidding the blocking of fire exits in the event of a lockdown, for example. People who are the victims of an infectious disease can be alone at home. Quarantine facilities will soon be a thing of the past.
A group of friends and families who hadn’t seen each other in months were having their barcodes taken down from the walls of bars and restaurants.
I spent most of my days working at night because non-essential businesses were closing and many people were stuck in their homes. I too began to feel the strain and started considering leaving the country.
It was pure disbelief at the time. Guangzhou had almost 8,000 cases that day, numbers similar to those that triggered a city-wide lockdown in Shanghai in April.
The New Year in Beijing: A Study of the COVID-19 Student Travel Laws in the First Three Months of the Lunar New Year
Some Chinese universities will let students finish the semester from home in order to reduce the potential of a bigger COVID-19 outbreak during January’s lunar New Year travel rush.
It wasn’t clear how many schools were taking part, but universities in Shanghai and nearby cities said students would be given the option of either returning home early or staying on campus and undergoing testing every 48 hours. The Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 22 this year, is traditionally China’s busiest travel season.
Universities have been the scene of frequent lockdowns over the past three years, occasionally leading to clashes between the authorities and students confined to campus or even their dorm rooms.
The move was taken following the government’s announcement last week that it was ending many of the strictest measures, following three years of being strict with virus restrictions.
With so many people staying home, Beijing’s downtown streets were eerily quiet on Tuesday. Small lines formed outside fever clinics — the number of which has been recently increased from 94 to 303 — and at pharmacies, where cold and flu medications have become harder to find.
The government of the southern city said Tuesday that it will remove restrictions on travelers that prevented them from going to restaurants or bars in the first three days. It would also scrap the use of its contact-tracing app, although vaccine requirements to enter venues like restaurants will remain in place. The new measures take effect Wednesday.
The easing of control measures on the mainland means a sharp drop in obligatory testing from which daily infections numbers are compiled, but cases appear to be rising rapidly, with many testing themselves at home and staying away from hospitals.
The Communist Party may have sought to minimize numbers of cases and deaths, as the government-supplied figures have not been independently verified.
The China Embassy in Shenyang and Wuhan is preparing for a big exit: Vaccination and Chinese herbal remedies in the wake of COVID-19
The U.S. consulates in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang and the central city of Wuhan will offer only emergency services from Tuesday “in response to increased number of COVID-19 cases,” the State Department said.
“Mission China makes every effort to make sure the full Consular services are available to US citizens in the PRC,” the e-mailed message said.
The daily report of COVID-19 was scaled down by China’s National Health Commission, in order to respond to the decline in test results since the government stopped anti-viruses measures after record highs.
The commission stopped publishing daily figures on cases where no symptoms were detected because it was not possible to accurately grasp the actual number of infections, according to a notice on the website. The only numbers they’re reporting are confirmed cases detected in public testing facilities.
Despite a push to boost vaccinations among the elderly, two centers set up in Beijing to administer shots were empty Tuesday except for medical personnel. Despite fears of a major outbreak, there was little evidence of a surge in patient numbers.
A dozen people were waiting for the results of their nucleic acid tests at the China-Japan friendship Hospital’s fever clinic. A nurse in protective gear checks a patient one by one.
A few kilometers south of the hospital, a group of people are waiting in a blue tent under the cold sun. One person in the queue took out a bottle of disinfectant and sprayed it around her as she waited.
Across the street at Gaoji Baikang Pharmacy, around a dozen people waited in line for cough medication and Chinese herbal remedies. The sign at the front said that they were doing everything they could to stock up for customers. A man coming out had bought two packages of Lianhua Qingwen, a Chinese herbal remedy, saying that each customer was restricted from buying any more than that.
Hospitals have also reportedly been struggling to remain staffed, while packages were piling up at distribution points because of a shortage of China’s ubiquitous motorized tricycle delivery drivers.
The country has fallen short on a number of measures to prepare for a big exit, with experts warning that it is less prepared than it could have been.
According to the University of Hong Kong professors, a nationwide reopening could cause as many as 661 deaths per million people.
The surge of infections would “likely overload many local health systems across the country,” said the research paper, released last week on the Medrxiv preprint server and which has yet to undergo peer review.
Simultaneously lifting restrictions in all provinces would lead to hospitalization demands 1.5 to 2.5 times of surge hospital capacity, according to the study.
The deaths were the first to be reported since the easing of restrictions, although there has been a rise in demand for funeral homes and crematoriums in Beijing.
The employee at the Beijing funeral home told CNN that they could not process all of the cremations in a day and customers had to wait until the next day.
The P.N. epidemic in China is going to hell: the first wave of COVID-19 could be over in a few months
The major cities are seeing a rise in infections. Most classes have been moved online in the financial hub of Shanghai. Students who are taking online classes in Guangzhou have been told not to go back to school.
In the megacity of Chongqing in the southwest, authorities announced on Sunday that public sector workers testing positive for Covid can go to work “as normal” – a remarkable turnaround for a city that only weeks ago had been in the throes of a mass lockdown.
The Chinese experts say that the worst is yet to come. The Chinese CDC’s chief epidemiologist said the country is being hit by the first of three waves of infections this winter.
Speaking at a conference in Beijing on Saturday, Wu said the current wave would run until mid-January. The second wave will last from late January to mid-February next year, due to mass travel ahead of the New Year holiday which falls on January 21.
Each year hundreds of millions of people migrate to China from their hometowns in hopes of finding a good job and a better life for them and their families.
Wang Guiqiang, top infectious disease doctor, told a news conference that only the deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure after contracting the virus are classified as Covid deaths.
The way health authorities tally COVID-19 statistics, applying a narrower, less transparent, and at times shifting standard, has been shown to cloud the numbers in an AP investigation.
A reporter for the AP saw people being removed from funeral homes in Beijing last week and two relatives said their loved ones died after testing positive for COvid-19. There were no deaths last week due to COVID-19.
Experts have repeatedly advocated that authorities be careful when they count deaths. Problems in death counts have raised questions in countries ranging from South Africa to Russia.
In May, the World Health Organization stated that 15 million people died in the first two years of the P.N. epidemic due to overwhelmed health systems. The death toll for that period is over 6 million.
The numbers look plausible but I don’t have other data to compare them with. Ben Cowling, professor of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong, told CNN that the NHC estimates might not be right, but that it would mean the peak would occur within a week.
The NHC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment after the NHC meeting notes were posted on Chinese social media and seen by CNN.
According to two people familiar with the matter, it was Sun Yang, a deputy director at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who presented the figures to the officials.
Comments on the Covid case at the December 19th closed-door meeting of the National Hot Topic Cell Virus (NHC) — a symptomatic case of extreme cold and flu-like disease
The figures are in stark contrast to the public data of the NHC, which reported just 62,592 symptomatic Covid cases in the first twenty days of December.
The minutes of the Wednesday closed-door NHC meeting made no reference to discussions concerning how many people may have died in China, according to both reports and the document CNN viewed.
The restrictions have prevented most Chinese from traveling abroad, limited face-to-face diplomatic exchanges and sharply reduced the number of foreigners in China for work and study.
China’s health commission said that steps would be taken to make it easier for some foreigners to enter the country, though it didn’t include tourists. A gradual increase in the number of Chinese tourists allowed to travel abroad was suggested, which is good news for hotels and related businesses.
The move followed rare public protests against the restrictions which have slowed the economy, put people out of work and made it difficult to get a job.
The arrival of the fast-spreading omicron variant in late 2021 made the strategy increasingly untenable, requiring ever-wider lockdowns that stymied growth and disrupted lives.