President Xi Jinping declared Covid Zero the most “economic and effective” policy for China, during a symbolic visit to Wuhan in which he cast the strategy as proof of the superiority of the country’s political system.
Xi said during a trip Tuesday to the central Chinese city where the virus first emerged in late 2019 that relaxing Covid controls would risk too many lives in the world’s most populous country. China would rather endure some temporary impact on economic development than let the virus hurt people’s safety and health, he said, in remarks reported Wednesday by state media.
