Chinese President Xi Jinping had only just launched his third term in power when questions about his leadership began to circulate at home and abroad. China’s complete turnaround on its zero-Covid policy was so rapid and extraordinary that it caught almost everyone by surprise.
But China’s course correction was signaled well before policy shifted in December 2022. In February 2022 responsibility for controlling Covid-19 was devolved to local governments, which made China’s shift from “dynamic clearing” or zero-Covid possible. Before the 20th Party Congress, the Yangtze River Delta was slated as the centerpiece of China’s Covid-19 recovery. After the Party Congress, local governments began to loosen restrictions a week before official central word. But the national scale of the reversal was more surprising than the implication that some areas could follow different policies.
