The public’s rejection of the Chinese government's COVID rules raises the political stakes of the next controversial policy.
Epidemic control workers in protective suits walk in a residential area in Beijing, December 9, 2022. Credit: Kyodo via AP Images
China’s leaders always knew that they would have to abandon their zero-COVID policy eventually, and that the longer they waited, the more painful the transition would be. Yet they seemed mired in the policy, unable to leave it behind and move on. Then, an apartment-building blaze in locked-down Xinjiang killed ten people whose escape was thwarted by locked doors and blocked entrances. This sparked China’s largest anti-government protests since the Tiananmen movement of 19
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