How Will China’s Move Away From Covid Zero Play Out? Your Questions Answered
Workers dismantle a temporary shelter outside a neighborhood under lockdown due to Covid in Beijing.
Source: Bloomberg
After three years and countless lockdowns, China is finally moving toward rejoining the rest of the world in living with Covid-19. The about turn was swift, and hastened by extraordinary protests against the zero-tolerance approach that has limited fatalities but upended the economy and people’s lives.
China now faces an unpredictable three to six months as it goes through the travails many other nations have experienced, but at a greater scale and with even greater ramifications given its place in the global economy. We asked Bloomberg global healthcare correspondent Michelle Cortez (MC) and senior China government reporter Colum Murphy (CM) to answer your questions on China’s sudden policy shift and its implications. Here’s what they had to say, lightly edited for length and clarity: